The Way Things Are
by Capelett
Summary: Danielle Marchand, an ex-single mother from London, finds herself in a variety of grim situations which begin to stretch her morals, sympathy and mental health through the first 11 years of her reign.
_The Way Things Are_

Chapter 1

My eye's narrow at the dawn of Friday, 6am. The ambience of the outside as depressing as ever. It takes me a few seconds of my eyes to be open before I fully endorse myself into reality. Surprisingly, as I look to the crib to my left, the usual crying and wailing of my child is unheard and my morning is abnormally peaceful.

I take no allotment in waking up hastily, I start work at 11am so I have all the time in the world… essentially. After a few minutes of relaxing, my body forces me to move the sheets off my body and ease out of my bed; quite quickly I grab the clothing on the drawer beside my bed, placing it on as to avoid the coolness of the room.

Downstairs. I'm in the kitchen, eating a piece of toast. I've already fed and dressed my baby and his adorable gargles and drools warm my heart, in repayment. As I eat, I sneak a quick glance at the time from my phone in my pocket. I take no time in checking the missed calls, only reading the date: 'August 25th 2006, 10:04'. A small sigh is prattled now I have around an hour before having to leave. In this time I finish eating the piece of toast and watch a 'saturday morning cartoon' for around 30 minutes, reminiscently. I don't really pay any attention to the story itself, rather the artstyle and colours. 'The Amazing Adventures of Stabby-Kun'.

10 past eleven… I'm mostly on time. I finally arrive to my place of work, 'Rachel's Diner'. It's mostly run-down, crumbling more than the pavement I stand on. The original neon lights now just a dark, insignificant feature which adds to the establishment's poverty. Displaying my red and black skirt and asserting my child, I put on a smile and enter the store. While it is a Friday and people are, at most, fatigued, this store is almost something out of 1984. Of course my pessimism is showing today, out of most days. I'm enthusiastic for the travelling my brother and I are doing, which is re-visiting our birthplace: France. I try not to dwell too much on these things and get to work immediately. I leave Leopold, my child, as usual, with Trudy; an old but confidant woman. She usually takes care of any minors in the establishment, especially mine to which she seems to enjoy the company of the most. The day is, essentially, the usual; nothing significant occurs throughout my work hours and once I'm told of the time, which is around 9pm, I retrieve Leo with thanks to Trudy and take off from the, now, more comely diner.

The time, I believe, is 9pm. Leo is asleep in his crib upstairs. I sit blankly, staring at the television. Nothing interesting is on, just some absurd show about a world dominated by birds. I pay no attention as I slurp some of my tea, staring with blasé at the screen. It takes a few seconds before I notice a slight vibration in my lower left pocket, I retrieve my phone from the pocket with a small sigh. 'Jack'. I answer the call and await from him to greet.

"Hey Dani, you feeling ok?" is what I first hear from him.

"I'm fine.. Just tired". I let out a small desperate laugh, playing lightheartedly with the small charm necklace around my neck.

"You have everything packed right?" I let out a mumble, affirming him of his question.

"Alright… Good, we need to leave at around eightish so make sure you wake up early.. Alright?"

A small sigh creeps out of my mouth,

"Of course, there's no need to worry."

"Alright… How's my little trooper?" he produces a static-like chuckle. I glance over my shoulder, looking up the stairs behind me while seeing a timid light, still laying from the room my baby is sleeping in.

"Oh he's fine. Not much has been going on all day to be honest. He's just catching up on some sleep".

I speak some cynical mumbles, looking back at the screen presented in front of me before continuing, "He'll probably have me up at five, crying".

"You know I can always take him for you, you need the peace anyway". A heartwarming sense climbs on me, forcasting my brother's large smile on the other side of our conversation, I reply with a small sense of inclement, smiling slightly.

"That sounds good actually… You're off next wednesday right?"

"Of course, I can pick him up then".

I thank him; we continue our conversation for another 5 minutes before I grow tired physically. I yawn quietly and bid him farewell until tomorrow, hanging up the phone, placing on my nightwear and climbing into bed… falling into the sensation of my dreams, my problems forgotten.

Saturday 26th August. Today is the day we head off to Lyon, my birthplace. It's around 6 in the morning. As I did yesterday, I take quite a while of being in a sort of unconscious trance before finally finding strength to leave my bed. It takes me a few seconds of rubbing my eyes, yawning and childishly playing with my hair before I check over on Leo, hoping he is happy asleep. To my surprise, he is in the comatose state which I expected; I use this to my advantage and open the door close to my bed, schlepping myself into the bathroom sluggishly. After a brief second of me realising the darkness, I flick on the single light which is hanging on the ceiling in the room to which I incline myself against the bathroom sink and stare at myself in the mirror. I look something out of a horror movie. Drained, brown eyes, lengthy chaotic hair which almost frolics in time with the slight breeze which creeps through the ventilation above me. My skin is mostly smooth with gentle maroon lines from where I have been sleeping, clumsily laying from the top of my head, across my eyes and fading away at my chin. The lines begin to fade as I stare more, mostly daydreaming and tired, still looking at my reflection. With a quick test to see if it works, I activate the cold tap and bowl my hands together where I then fill my hands with water, splashing it on my face. Out of impulse, my body subconsciously shakes my head left and right to remove most of the water from my eyes; I spend more time staring at my reflection in the mirror, almost falling into another reverie before the distant wailing of my child is heard from the room closest to me. I sigh, annoyed. With a quick movement, I grab the towel on the recently lustered pole against the wall to which I use to dry my face with; once finished, I grumpily stumble into the bedroom, wearing a fake smile once close to my urchin. With a sort of high-pitched voice, I whisper

"Come on now Leo, there's no need for this. Mummy's tired".

He continues to cry and sort of… Dance, ignorant of what I just said.

"Look, play with this. I'll go get you something to eat" I sigh while activating a toy constellation slightly above reach height of him, this appearing to silence him to only grunts and gurgles as I slowly creep out of the room. Still in my pyjamas, I gently close the white door behind me, facing the corridor from the very end. I feel tired. I probably didn't get enough sleep… I guess that doesn't matter, I can catch up on some sleep on the plane. I shake my head and locomate, at a slow pace, down the narrow corridor; tiredly I pass the spare room door on my left, still covered in light amounts of hair from when we had Jack's dog visit. Further down to the right I pass the second bedroom door which appears to be marginally open and looks significantly shorter than the room Leo and I sleep in with only a cold, lonely bed which has yet to find a companion to be slept upon. I reach the stairs and tremble down the cold, wooden steps, which produce slight squeaks and mumbles when walked upon. After flicking on the light which stances itself close to the stairs, I find myself in the front room with the small television lounging in the corner, collecting dust on it's head like a greying old man and noticeably stationing itself opposite two, black leather sofas with light wrinkles and a half-empty coffee mug sitting on the arm of one. With a grumble, I turn to my left down another corridor, passing the white doors of an empty room only filled with boxes and miscellaneous items, a main bathroom and a small corridor to which bears the front entrance of the house.

After passing the 3 doors, I find myself walking through the narrow arches of the ill-lighted, sanitary kitchen before, once again, activating the lights from the switch in the room. Inside I find the usual, A mostly-clean room with dark grey tiles decorating the floor along with four white-painted walls standing above them; A metre in front of me is a lackadaisical-looking counter with a black top and a small puddle of milk, from where I clumsily spilt some making my tea yesterday, sitting on top like a charming hat. A metre behind them opposes a medium, silver fridge with cliché magnets scattered across it; to the fridge's right is a rusty, white cooker and to its left is large tap and draining board with a garbage can sitting under it. I head to the fridge with slight haste and open the fridge, opening a plastic drawer at the bottom of the chilling box and retrieving a green apple. From one of the counter drawers, I grab an appealing blue bowl along with an acute, purple knife and place the apple inside the bowl, dicing it into small cubes. With a deep sigh, I grip the bowl, leaving the knife lazily sitting on the counter and emigrate back into the living-room while forgetting to turn off the light. I take no time in returning back into my temperate room once I hear Leo beginning to cry once again; I close the door behind me as I finally stumble back into the room, twisting a dial to the right of the door which increases the brightness of the light above me. I see Leo, still in his crib crying due to the constellation above him awkwardly stopping its repetitive tune. With a sigh, I place the bowl of food on my bed and gently grab my baby, also placing him on the large bed next to the light-blue bowl. It takes me a few seconds of smiling at him before giving him the responsibility of eating, doing this by placing the bowl of diced apple on his lap. Knowing I have all the time in the world, I leisurely shuffle to the mahogany draws next to my bed to which I open the top drawer and drowsily grab whatever clothes I can. With little inspection, I identify the clothes to be a dark-blue pair of jeans and a white and brown striped dress shirt along with a pink pair of boyshorts and black socks. With Leo quietly eating I'll have time to get dressed and most likely tend to my hair so, with little thought, I creep into the ensuite bathroom where I take no time in getting dressed. Today's going to be a good day.

I take a small sip of my tea, a sweet sensation relaxes in my mouth as I consume some of the drink. With a small movement, I check the time using the clock above the television, 8am; Jack should be here by now. Leo makes a small amount of grunts as I glance down at him, letting out a small smile. After a few minutes, a gentle knocking is heard from the door. In alleviation that I no longer have to wait, I take a quick stance from the couch and walk down the same corridor I toured down earlier this morning. Once there, I open the door and show feign surprise once I see Jack's face. He looks more levelheaded than usual, his usually chaotic brown hair is cheaply fixed with gel. His complexion is unusually pale and he bares a subtle 'ducktail' beard. He nods to me with a warm smile and a reserved voice,

"Hey Dani, you' all set?". I nod swiftly to him, slowly walking back to the living-room, grabbing both my suitcase and Leo in his baby seat. We talk freely as we exit my house and walk towards Jack's car.

"We've been waiting quite a while, traffic?" he mumbles in confirmation and adds,

"It's hell out there… quite cold as well, should be quieter in France. I was able to book us a small chalet in the countryside of Lyon. I think we've been there before… With ma'?". I let out a laugh,

"You mean when you set off those firecrackers at 3am and scared the hell out of her?" He nods and lets out a small chuckle, "Yes… That place".

I gesture for him to hold my bag, to which he concurs, and I strap Leo in the back of the car before closing the back doors and seating myself in the passenger seat, noticing Jack as he places our bags in the boot. After a short time of waiting, Jack finally opens the car door and settles himself in the driver's seat and turns to me and speaks in his usual soft voice,

"You all set?" I nod and smile while lounging my feet above the glove compartment. With a quick turn of the keys and acceleration of the car, we're off.

9:30 am. We finally arrive at the airport. I've always hated airports really, the hustle and buried feeling of it all is just something I dislike. We park our car and, with Jack's help, retrieve all our bags from the car's trunk. As I carry Leo in his baby chair, Jack looks down to him with a grin, saying softly,

"This'll be Leo's first time". I nod,

"As long as he doesn't follow in your footsteps of arming bombs at 3am, I'm sure he'll be fine," Jack lets out a small laugh as Leo gurgles as usual,

"Oh come on, they're not exactly bombs now. Plus I've heard Leo, I'd much rather sleep through explosives than him". I'm reminded of Jack's slight limp as I look down in a fake laughter. it's been a few years since he was medically discharged from the military, it's at that moment that I realise he'd probably choose Leo's crying after all.

10:30 am. After a surprisingly OK meal and no issues with security, we are able to board the plane. Jack, as he usually does, choses where we sit; after a small while of awkwardly budging past other tourists, we decide to ensconce ourselves on the trio of seats at the rear of the plane. I place Leo on the left seat and sit in the middle next to him, with Jack sitting on my right a few minutes after grabbing two sodas and a bag of peanuts. He lets out a comical grumble as he sits, handing me one of the colas and speaking quietly,

"Airline food, am I right?". I laugh and reply,

"It's only two hours, don't cry over it". His sarcastic replies are unheard as I lie down against the seat, of course checking Leo's well being before doing so. I feel happy in my relaxation… I haven't felt as cared for in a while and these past few years have not been so easy. Jack notices me slowly beginning to fall to rest, unknowing of why I'm so tired recently. Maybe it's not in fatigue but rather in need of the quietness and the feeling of no feeling at all… immeasurable tranquillity.

I'm most likely asleep now… The thought never really occurs to me. All I can remember is the struggle but, rather, the lack of it. It's obvious that Leo, as much as I love him, was never intentional… I don't want to talk about his 'father'. The pain, the lack of control overall… I don't like to think about it really. I was lucky… Even as a victim, people stood up for me after the rape. I never, for a second, look into Leo's eyes and see… Him. I always see myself, my genetics in him… It was hard for me. I found peace many nights at the bottom of a cheap bottle of wine. My confusion and loss of self consumed me, while flashbacks and nightmares became a ritual in my already messed-up schedule. Of course I'm better now and… Jack has helped a lot. I guess that's why I took this trip, to forget more than I've already forgotten.

"Holy shit!" I open my eyes swiftly, unaware over who awoken me. My attention is quite quickly taken by the vast amount of people, looking out the left-side windows of the plane. I, like earlier, take a quick check on Leo before joining the crowd, spotting out and standing next to Jack.

I look out of the window into the sea below, questionably asking Jack,

"What's wrong?". Before he can ask, a slightly overweight male, probably in his 40s, interrupts,

"Look up! Look up!". As both Jack and I do, we see a peculiar sight… Almost terrifying. At what I first thought was an ill-looking storm appears to be a sort of portal. It spans almost 2 miles in diameter and is a crimson red colour, dominated by an orange colour which appears to be the atmosphere of wherever the portal was opened. We see 5 large black towers with blue lights, standing over the portal's inside. I look over to Jack in hopes of reassurement but my fears are amplified as he looks to be the most frozen out of everyone here. Tears begin to spawn in my eyes. Like a child, I am simply crying on the lack of knowledge and the dismay upon the crowd begins to intensify. A croaky, st

atic voice comes from the intercoms, sound a lot more calm and preserved than the civilians outside the cockpit,

"This is your captain speaking… Please remain seated while we uh… Get intel on the storm". Anger and panic begins to arise as a tall, suit-wearing male in grey hair shouts,

"It's not a fucking storm you idiot!". This one remark arises a riot and people begin to fearfully scramble around the plane. Jack and I merely stay in position by the window, questioning what this is and as we begin to move away, countless amounts of flesh-like beings begin to glide and flutter out of the portal. Even in our horror, we catch a glimpse of what the beings look like. We notice only two… species?

One appearing much more long and streamlined, with a propeller at it's very back, covered in its usual flesh-like material. A long sort of gun is visible at its front and obscure markings cover its back and flesh. Another alien-like creature is also noticed, flying out in groups of its duplicate brethren. They appear much more rectangular, with two long arms by its front and three tentacle-like arms, covering what looks to be a large rocket… These arms showing once on both sides of the creature. The incongruous thing also seems to bear the same fleshy coating as the, what I nickname, 'gunship' and has two, vastly large, legs at its bottom, also protecting a rocket in each leg. It's tentacle arms appear to be holding a string-like creature with a large head and gun, similar to the gun-ship's… Perhaps a third alien?

I look to Jack in immense fear. Alien fucking creatures are crawling through this portal and we know nothing of what they are. In the distance, more portals begin to open, all spawning large amounts of these creatures. Without thinking, Jack grabs my hand and drags me to Leo,

"Grab him! Come on!" I nod hesitantly and take no time in strapping him out of his seat and taking him with me, allowing Jack to forcefully drag me with ease. I look at him with curiosity which is mostly fear and ask him, "Where are we going?!"

"Cockpit!" is all he says in reply. I nod once again and follow him. Half way through the ship and an ear-grinding sound is heard: a large painful humming, most likely from a gunship, edges closer and before I can react it begins to fire and 2 of the 20 shots hit, and the sound of the bullets piercing and the metal melting is audible. Behind me, I see the tall male who instigated the panic… rather half of him, with only his charred legs standing with a black smoke emitting from them. Screaming grows 10 times louder and his legs fall to the ground as a large amount of shaking, almost like an earthquake, takes its toll on the plane as it begins to fall. I join the cliche of screaming and turn to Jack, still dragging me and seeming emotionless. We finally arrive close to the cockpit where it seems slightly more quiet, My brother looks to me, seriousness in his eyes as he speaks,

"Stay here, alright?! I'm not leaving without you". I nod, scared, and as he forcefully opens the door I expeditiously unstrap Leo from his baby carrier and hold him close to my chest, shushing him as I have only now noticed his weeping. Mumbles are only heard from the cockpit which my brother recently entered and with a sigh, he exits, only now showing emotion on the situation. He turns to me,

"They don't fucking listen. They think this is some sort of fucking joke, I swear!" he sighs and hugs both me and Leo in an unexpected movement before he continues, "Don't worry… We're gonna survive this… You hear me?". I make no answer, only letting out a short mumble in agreement, crying more than my child. It takes a few more seconds of comforting before the humming from the ship returns, firing many more shots before the plane collides with the water.

I hear and see nothing… am I… dead? I subconsciously sigh in my mind… Only left to my thoughts. I'm… angry… very much annoyed. My life has come to an end so suddenly… no goodbyes, nothing. I am forgotten so instantly and my 'life' becomes a mere corpse. I feel my thoughts begin to die away in a mere darkness and with no alert or pain. This is seemingly the end… a sudden, insignificant number which, due to what I saw in my last seconds of life, will be insignificant in the vast amount of casualties. I guess I should feel at peace with this… a sleep I much desired earlier is now the one thing I do not want, I want to awaken, I don't want to die! What if Leo survives without me! What if, what if, what if… My mind procures another sigh and as I usually do, I act like a child… almost sulking and sighing over the situation.

My assumptions earlier and proven wrong when the sounds of crying, groaning and screaming begins to fade back to me. I feel cold and wet and as I begin to regain my vision, a blurry flow of water is visible, entering from cracks and bullet holes in the plane. I rub my eyes, stinging them with salt but still gaining much more of my vision. Leo is nowhere to be seen and all I hear is immense crying from both many of the victims of the attack and my child. I look over to Jack who seems to be, overall, unharmed. I'm still mostly in an unconscious state, too shocked to move the majority of my muscles. My vision still blurry, Jack begins to grab me, slumping me upon my shoulder. I groan loudly, and look in front of me to find an orange lifeboat. It's at this point I begin screaming, "What about Leo!?"... this is all I repeat over and over. Jack, concentrated on his surroundings as he lays me onto the boat, appears ignorant to my requests and as he grabs a small bag from one of the slowly burning seats close to him, he kicks the boat out of a large crater in the newly crashed plane, shortly jumping on it as I sail away. I continually begin to cry and scream, still too weak and hurt to crawl back to my child… only able to place out my open hand in direction of the crash… The screams of my abandoned baby slowly quieten down and we are merely two survivors of hundreds of soon-to-be fatalities. Due to my wounds, I fall back into my unconscious state, the cries of Leo echo in my mind.

Chapter 2

I'm not sure how much time has passed but I wake up much more refreshed and expeditiously than before. Seagulls continue to yell and cry as they fly past our boat. On the other end of the insignificant lifeboat which, in a sense, saved me is Jack, looking down with an unaffected look. I only stare, fury in my eyes. I have no energy to try and attack him, nor would I want to. All I feel is anger and deep down, I know he senses it from me. In the distance, more portals than what we saw earlier, varying in size due to the space at which is in between them. I don't take any time is gasping at the sight, the orange sky, the bullets, the audible screaming in the distance. My only concentration is on Jack and after a small while of staring… the feelings finally impact me and, to Jack's expectancy, I break down into tears. Slowly, Jack moves towards me, comforting me. While I dislike him being so close, inside I know it wasn't his fault.

In the close distance, after wiping tears from my eyes, I notice a beach with most of its, originally jolly, architecture now burnt and destroyed. We appear to be sailing closer and I continue to look behind me in the smallest slight of hope that Leo survived, but of course, nothing floats above the water… only a heart-breaking silence. I stay silent for the time being and continue to until we finally reach the beach, I have nothing to say to Jack or on the situation, I only look up at the portals and regular fly bys of the aliens in fear.

After 20 minutes of mourning my lost child, cowering over the flying creatures and shunning my brother, We finally reach a close enough distance to the beach to hop off the rubber lifeboat, onto land after a brief confrontation with the cold, salty water. While this would seem like a revolutionary step in our survival, not dehydrating out in the ocean, we just stand there… awkwardly; Jack obviously seems to be thinking of the next step and of our surroundings but we purely do nothing but stand there, me folding my arms feeling cold due to the water. I look around the environment, gathering my thoughts. In the distance is a large city with smoke and fire visible in its horizon. Gunfire from both the alien creatures and our more-recognised military is heard, one gunship is seen being shot down by a battle-scarred jet as I look over at the sounds, this gives me more confidence but I still idly stare, terrified of these new beings.

Our loitering is soon interrupted when a large alien ship, carrying a thin-legged cybernetic being, covered in the usual flesh all of the aliens wield, closes in on us, opening its arms and dropping the alien highly close to us. The newly-established being unbends its tripod legs in a swift movement and begins to chase us as we scream and flee Jack shouting,

"Oh shit!". Luckily its shots are poor due to our size and distance but a lot of sand gets in my eyes from the gunfire and due to, what seems to be plazma, it burns severely, blurring my vision slightly. If it was not for the ramp that was conveniently close to us, we'd probably die on that beach. We proceed to traverse the slope and find ourselves on the docks with burning food stores lying in front of us. The enemy proceeds to chase us, reaching around the same height as four houses stacked upon each other. I briefly look over my shoulder at the being, it's head the size of a large car and it's legs bearing apical blades. Fortunately these inimical-looking blades work to our advantage as, when it chases us onto the pier, its legs humorously pierce the burning wood. After a short amount of running, we just about make it to a highway, unsurprisingly no cars are on the road but now that it has finally passed the pier, leaving a trail of debris and fire behind, the intruder picks up speed and follows us once again, firing inaccurate shots which now seems to be it's gimmick. We just about make it to the city after traversing some fields and demolished buildings, close to a moderately-sized skyscraper with only a majority of its windows shattered. To our greatest fears, we run out of breath and only pray our deaths will be painless. We turn behind us, looking up at our likely cause of death. In fear, I pounce myself against Jack, crying. He holds me as it walks closer… and closer. Suddenly, an ear-shattering sound arises from our left. A tank! Along with the charred vehicle is five other soldiers, armed with black assault rifles. Smiles grow on Jack and I's faces, though we're still terrified inside. Our grins are broken as we hear a large static scream from the attacker and another shot is fired, resulting in the alien's collapse with its head breaking open to show a brain of sorts, along with other parts of its body spawning with fire. Chants and jeers of happiness quickly derive from the soldiers, appearing to be said in French,

"Ouais! Prends ça! Ouais!". Jack joins them while pushing away from me and running towards them, my French to poor to understand their yells. After the happiness begins to die down and the crowd of heroes begin to lose their optimism, I walk towards them, treading over and avoiding the glass. With my arms folded, I listen in on the conversation though not so intently considering I understand little of it. After a small while of talking, Jack taps me on the arm and narrows down the discussion,

"Apparently we landed in Le Havre… The soldiers here don't seem to be doing so well against these… Things. That thing back there was a 'Strider' and the things dropping them are 'dropships'," another one of the soldiers interrupts Jack, saying something briefly. Jack nods and turns back to me,

"Also, they're trying to evacuate most citizens to the countryside, it's less targeted apare-," Jack is once again interrupted though, this time, not by a soldier but rather the disturbing scream of a dropship speedily gliding towards the building behind us. Behind the ship is a large trail of smoke and before we can even react, it violently collides with the skyscraper. Vast arrays of glass and debris rains down on us like a blizzard. Noticing I am frozen in shock, Jack nimbly pushes me against a bus stop close to us and shelters both himself and I under its plastic roof, making a comical excuse of a 'defence'. I'm not one to complain. The debris begins to grow larger and, before we know it, half of the building collapses in a towering inferno. Chunks of concrete and glass fall more and more. Looking over at the shouting soldiers and their tank, we see a gigantic piece of concrete drill through the tank like butter, obviously killing the operator inside. One of the soldiers notices the safety we are in and desperately attempts to join us; I scream in alarm when the hopeless male is crushed and grinded into viscera by hailing concrete, reminding me almost of the diced apple I fed Leo purely hours ago. The newly made corpse makes a horrific grinding sound, similar to that of food being blended, also dropping his gun. Jack takes this as an opportunity and risks the top half of his head by reaching for the gun in a quick movement, doing this successfully. I was far too distracted by my cowering, crying and being spectator to a human blender to notice what happened to the other men, all I see now is piles of concrete and blood… Pure silence which is regularly intruded by gunfire in the distance. Jack and I plainly sit there in shock as we await for the dust to clear. As usual, fire is still visible in the destruction, becoming a cliché danger at this point. I almost feel like throwing up but find it unnecessary, taking a slow stance along with Jack after the scene begins to quieten down. Obviously horrified, Jack pulls a slight grin and turns to me, "I guess we'll be heading west," I nod with a pale expression, following him and keeping my thoughts to myself, seeing this as the only resort to keep myself unaffected.

It's been around 30 minutes since the strider attacked us, we're still walking west through back alleys and quiet areas. Jack unknowingly annoys me with his repetitive checks on his gun; I don't know what he keeps doing, all I see is him tampering. We've been unharmed since we began travelling and my vision has reversed from its blurry state. To break the silence Jack glances at me, picking up pace to keep up with my fast walk-speed, "Are you OK…?" I grumble and return eye contact, still angered and upset inside, "That's a pretty stupid question to ask, don't you think?". He lets out a sad sigh,

"I didn't want to leave him Dani, you know that…," appearing more angry, I look away and reply,

"Just don't… Jack..." "Dani… listen…". I stop after he speaks, turning to him with my arms crossed and my eyes bloodshot in a troublesome state, a moment of silence passes and he lets out another sigh, continuing, "It was either that or we all die… We were literally a millisecond away from drowning, don't you see that?". After bowing my head, I stare at him with tears growing from my eyes. As I begin to speak, Jack's eyes bizarrely look over my shoulder like a burning laser. I hesitantly turn. At first I see nothing but a half-decayed diner, similar to the one I worked in but on closer inspection I see a black figure, standing on three legs like a tripod, though smaller than the 'Strider' we saw earlier. I jump in fear when it returns its stare, almost as interested in me; of course it's another species of these aliens and its primal instincts kick into place as it runs towards me. My ears are, once again, damaged from the loud gunfire behind me, obviously from Jack. The black-legged create with a sort of pus leaking from it is almost upon me and it seems something similar to a dog with rabies. This time I'm more prepared and weakly kick the creature in one of its two eyes, stacked upon each other. It screams a sound similar to a strider and aims a small gun-looking barrel at me to which I react by jumping upon it and attempting to punch its rubber-like skin, almost like a shark's. This attack doesn't go well and, like a stallion, I am kicked off the back of the alien into some rubble behind it, screaming and shouting throughout the whole situation. All I'm left with is a vision of it nearing on Jack and as I begin to regain my thoughts and slowly arise to my feet, my only thoughts are to try and save him. This idea is short lived as, followed by a fulfilling scream, Jack empties an entire clip into the alien, kicking it away and responsively allowing it to collapse onto the road before us with its saliva discharging onto the floor. I let out an array of pants, distorted in a joyful pitch that we're still alive. Unlike before, no yells of joy are made… all we do is look down at the corpse and recover our senses. Jack looks to me, slowly reloading his gun with a clip I didn't even know he had,

"How many more of these cunts do you think we're going to discover today?" I find no humour in his remark, hesitantly replying, "Let's just keep going… I'd rather that be our last fight". He nods, finishing his actions and leading the way east. I've never visited Le Havre before but I'm sure it's really not living up to what the brochures say right now.

After a small conversation and agreement, Jack and I decide to enter the diner the alien came from in hopes of finding something. As we edge closer and closer, the sounds of groaning and weeping does also. Jack uneasily raises his gun and I protect myself behind him. We slowly enter the diner and, to our surprise, we see two people in the dark corner, a male and female, both young. A few seconds of our eyes adjusting and we're quick to notice the male, painted in blood and missing half of his left leg. He doesn't seem to be wearing a bandage on his leg, though he is not heavily bleeding which suggests that whatever that thing was, the gun it almost shot me with would probably have ended me quite quickly. I show little emotion over this, only a silent cry of sympathy for him and his lover, who seems the most affected here as she cries against his chest, showing quick glances to us with her tear-flooded eyes. We make no physical contact, nor do we talk. We just stand there… staring at them as they return the fixture on us. After a few seconds, we slowly back away, only hoping to forget about this situation.

We continue our travels down the quiet road, surprisingly showing a lack of debris. Jack says we're still awhile away from the countryside and I find no suprise in it. I honestly don't know how to react to this, I'm mostly powered by shock and fear. I could stop walking now, lie down and die and probably feel similar emotions in my death. What I can't comprehend is how this is happening. Any sane person would see this as a dream but… all the pain and suffering… this is far too real. I'm sure it's cliché to think it, but I hope it's a nightmare. Jack and I have been able to see this fuel station in the distance, mostly unharmed but abandoned nonetheless. I'm only left alone in an awkward silence and my thoughts as we proceed to approach it.

It takes us around 5 more minutes of walking before reaching the gas station which, to our lack of surprise, gives us nothing to work with. Jack grumbles and mopes over the building's lack of use to us but at least we're far from the commotion of the monsters. I only fold my arms, waiting for Jack to finish scavenging like a malnourished fox. We're quite close to the coast and I can still see the portal which brought an end to our normal lives, sitting complacently in the distance over the sea as it continues to secrete gunships and other peculiar aliens. I almost feel like screaming and swearing at this orange circle in the sky. I feel like placing a curse on it like a witch but that's mostly me touching with my immature side,

"Hey! Dani! Check this out!". I unfold my arms and jog over to behind the building from where Jack was shouting from. In front of me is a rusty white 1960s Beetle. As poor as the car is, if it works we'll be to safety in no time. Spending no time, Jack smashes the driver-side window with the butt of his gun, proceeding to open the door from the inside and unlock the car for me to get in.

With his face showing curiosity, Jack makes a poor attempt at hotwiring the car by, what looks to me, clumsily moving cables and dancing his fingers around them in a weird fashion. Like a miracle from god himself, the car starts up like a coughing old hag. Now basking in our joy, Jack and I decide to sit comfortably in the aged seats and after checking I'm in condition, we begin to speed off away from the war-torn city. I lie my head down, quickly peaking it up to turn on the radio. A loud beeping swarms the car and instantly fills me with fear, I never liked emergency broadcasts. The sound of it is eerie and, as it is pre-recorded, a robotic-sounding male begins to speak.

"The following message has been transmitted at the request of the federal aviation administration. An unidentified aircraft has been spotted at the coast of Florida. The aircraft is presumed to be foreign and may pose a threat to the area. Residents are advised to immediately tune to local media outlets for further developments. More updates will follow as information becomes available". More beeping is heard and before I begin to turn it off in the assumption that it will loop, the male begins to talk again.

"The following message is transmitted at the request of the United States Governments. Numerous foreign aircrafts have been identified and are firing at individuals that are invading the country. Their intentions are unknown at the time. Residents at the United States are strongly encouraged to shelter in place to avoid being attacked or be taken hostage. To shelter in place, take the following precautions. Close all windows and doors, turn off all heating, air conditioning units and all lights. Have a battery-powered radio for information in your shelter. It is also recommended to shelter in the lower or upper-most location of your home. Continue to tune in to your local media outlet for more information about your specific area". A sickly feeling stirs inside my stomach. Of course they're fucking hostile… Though… I guess we're the unlucky first to feel the wrath of this attack. I turn off the radio as the beeping continues and I notice Jack, who was listening intently at the time.

"I remember when they played something similar to this in Afghanistan. There were bombings close in the area… Kids were shitting themselves," he lets out a chuckle as he remarks this, showing deep sadness and fear. I lay my head back against the seat and close my eyes, tuning out the world in desperation and hopes it is all still a dream, knowing it's not. The rattling of the car is slightly reassuring, reminding me of my mother's old car before she passed away years ago. Now I just feel alone, against the world in this unforgivable attack though deep inside… I know it'll all be over soon.

Chapter 3

My trance of forgetting outside world is pardonably interrupted by a loud array of sneezing from the car. I open my eyes and find the car reducing to a slow halt, Jack hitting the steering wheel,

"For fuck sake! No no no!". I glance over at him interestingly, "What is it?". He looks to me, calming down a little more and showing sadness, "We're out of gas". Usually running out of fuel is an annoying thing. You have to walk, you have to pay for fuel, you have to do many more things than intended. Though, in our situation, running out of fuel is essentially a death sentence. We are out in the middle of nowhere with only an assault rifle and a constant amount of aliens chasing anything that moves. He sighs, unlocking the doors, "I guess we'll have to walk from here," I slowly open my door and step outside. It's silent… mostly. The road we stop on is almost like a dark, narrow tunnel. I stand on an old road, probably seen better days in its time. Surrounding the road are trees, standing boldly above the road like a gang of bullies. I see nothing in the forests to my left and right and the road in front of us gently begins to slope up, blocking my view in most directions. I only stand here, taking in the air and forgetting of my losses. Jack slams his door shut with his gun in his arms like a hostage, "May aswell get going then," he discloses. I nod to him, following behind him into the murky forest to my left with slights shivers due to the cold.

10 minutes have passed. I've been mindlessly walking throughout this forest, following Jack, with no intent to survive any longer. It's something out of a horror film, truly. The trees continually tease me by making mirages with their ability to cast believable shadows and it continues to make me jump, thinking a strider is secretly hiding for us to peek out at the right time. Who am I kidding? These aliens know nothing of guerrilla tactics. Jack strokes his beard intently, on his other arm, as we stroll curiously through the forest. If these aliens have vision based on movement, we'll be pretty safe in this forest but somehow I find that unbelievable, just a naive assumption. I'm still angered at Jack and he knows it, if anything I'm just using him… his experience for safety. Jack, unexpectedly, throws his gun and bag, which he retrieved from the car most likely, onto the floor. "Are you hungry Dani?" I nod unintently while scanning our surroundings with little dexterity. "Alright… I got us some food, I'll go look out for firewood. You'll be safe right?" I nod back at him, again, in reply and after a few seconds of concentrating on my expression, he picks up his gun and begins walking in an unknown direction into the forest. I sit here, alone… it's a revolutionary feeling for me really… maybe that's why he showed no offering for me to come. Jack knows I'm upset with him and I feel like the villain here, me! To save energy I sit against the damp floor, getting dirt on my jeans. I fold my legs up into an upside-down V shape and hold them to keep myself warm. I'm still wearing my brown and white dress shirt, my light-blue jeans, my blue and white high-tops. I find them to look ugly on me but they're comfortable. I feel sorry for the folk wearing fancy dresses and tight-suits right now. It's been a while now and Jack still hasn't returned, I begin to grow worried but still try to calm myself. I'd hear gunshots if he was in danger… right? I let out a sigh, trying to push out any thoughts of Leo, right now I need to forget… as depressing as it is.

"Danielle!"

I turn my head to my left in a quick motion to find Jack, waving at me to which he continues shouting,

"Over here!". With slight relief, I retake my earlier stance, grabbing Jack's bag while wiping leaves and soggy twigs from my legs. He looks quite abrupt so, without second thought, I run towards him. He begins to talk as I get close enough to him, "Look… over here". I let out some pants as I stand close to him, allowing him to point my vision in a direction north of us. It takes me a while of looking before I see smoke, mostly light in colour and looking like something a novice boy-scout would make. I begin to question him, "What is it?" Jack continues to stare at the fire, "Probably survivors… They heard us, obviously," "I guess we should go over to them then". He nods to me and, as usual, takes the lead as we walk towards the source of the fire. Three people are visible as we edge closer, all staring at us with hostility. The fact they're not on edge either proves their wisdom or ignorance to this whole epidemic.

Now only a metre away, we notice the small fire with two young people, a male and female, with an older male on the opposite side, holding a grey pistol of sorts. Around the time we notice the firearm, the older male greets us, "Look's to me that some vacationers had the same idea, hm? Smart minds think alike don't they?" He pauses for us to reply and before we do, the young male on the opposite side adds, "No pa'. They're probably more Frenchies". The old man grumbles and I step forward with an angered glance at the young boy, "No. We're tourists. Just passing through... We're uh… planning on-" The old male interrupts me and says in a mocking tone, "Hide until the scary monsters go away!"; I nod, irritated. I look down towards the probable siblings and see slight resemblance, in them, to Jack and I… I wonder if the girl lost her child due to her brother's survival instincts, also. The elder male continues as I stare down at the two, "Well you may aswell huddle down with us, these be the safest parts right now," Jack and I understand this and sit down on the damp mud once again. I notice more details in the old man. He bears an eye patch over his right eye with a visible scar lying under it, treating the patch like a blanket. His face appears more wrinkled as he looks at us and his hair is neglected and grey and invading his jaw with a large beard. I inspect him, then the young-adults opposite to him, seeing resemblance in them with both the male and female sharing blonde hair and brown eyes. The girl appears to just be hugging against her brother in a sacred manner, a cliché in our newly-found situation. The old male lets out a cough as he eyes us, "May as well introduce usselves'. I'm Benjamin, these are my kiddos': Lacey and Teddy. You'll have to excuse their… silence, kids' are shitting themselves," he breaks out into a desperate laughter and no one joins, leaving us in an awkward silence. Jack pitches in on this new assembly, "Well… I'm Jack Marchand, my sister here is Danielle," Benjamin nods, "kinfolk' I see, aha… not one to judge". We laugh along nervously with the male and leave ourselves in a pitiful silence. After a few seconds, Benjamin speaks up, "Hey uh… Jack, you look like one of those military boys." My brother glances at the man with a raised brow, "Oh?". "Mhmm… The way you hold that gun there and your sister hiding behind ya'll so much, ahah… It's easier than a game of charades," Jack mumbles, "Well maybe you're right there old man. What's it to you?". A few seconds pass of awkward silence and staring before he replies to Jack, "Well you see, boy, we're thinking of heading out to this old village out to the west. We ran through it screamin' and such, thought there'd be some good ol' loot there. No one's there, probably joined us, ol' Lacey ere's got one hell of a voice," he lets out another rusty laugh while Jack looks slightly down, thinking.

"You know what, perhaps you're right… Who knows how long we'll be out here," Jack takes a small glance at me and at the two siblings, still comforting each other, almost heartwarming to me. After his usual stare, Jack continues, "Mmm… Dani, you're coming too". I make no debate over this, only standing, still shielding myself behind Jack, Benjamin proceeding to chuckle, "Haha! That's more like it."

Benjamin, Jack and I all trod through the forest at quick pace, wanting not to waste time. It takes us around 10 minutes before we're out the forest into a bright green field, this Benjamin person sure knows his way around here; for a tourist this is quite peculiar. In the distance we see a small village with old cobblestone houses and brown, moss roofs. There is a small road coming from the village, which is probably how people leave to further parts of the area, but it seems mostly self-sustainable. Between us is a bright green field with clustered trees scattered around and associations of vibrant flowers, all varying in colour. I'd usually take this for granted as a boring old field but considering I watched 5 trained soldiers be turned to a human version of ground beef, this is a nice escapism. Still no talking, we finally arrive at the village which, while cloaked by its beauty, is almost like a ghost town. The village is quite small, mostly organising itself around a large road. From where we stand there is is a small pond which leads to a peaceful forest, to our left is a contemporary, white building which appears to sell useless toys and other items. Deeper into the village as we stroll down, we see cute buildings, many converted to family businesses, probably to keep the village alive. Many of the houses look abandoned with their doors left open. The village itself is very uncanny and, as said before, seems haunted… possessed. We show no expression as Benjamin talks, "Looks like the ol' buggers left". While it is quite tranquil and almost feels like a vacation, the sight of both Benjamin and Jack holding weapons as if this is a S.E.A.L operation really ruins my grasp on keeping calm. We come to a cramped square in the middle of the town and agree to split up in three directions, Jack headed south to search the first amount of buildings, Benjamin heading east, to the farm, in search of any weapons or insulation and me heading north to a more commercial area, hopefully find some sort of communication device for us to call for help.

I fold my hands into my pockets as I stumble down the pathway. You can really tell, by looking at the much more modern road and buildings, that capitalism really began taking way here. To my left is a hotel named 'Parkhurst Inn'. I decide to enter, ignoring most other buildings in laziness. Inside is a dusty ambience. It was probably the first to be abandoned seeing as there is a newfangled plasma television lingering on the wall, playing a similar message as I heard earlier in the car. I turn off the tv, not listening at all to what the announcer has to say, I don't enjoy the gut-feeling it gives me. I look around the front room; in front of me is the counter, probably where people check in, to my right is a hallway which leads to a steep amount of stairs, leading to the rooms most likely. And as I look to my left I see a room, almost hidden in dust, a few tables located inside with two, antique sofas and a TV set. I sigh, there's no point searching any other rooms. I climb over the counter and forcefully open the door behind it, entering the room. I'm greeted by an atrocious smell and as I look to the right I see a corpse! I almost feel like throwing up and scream curses at the sight; a small male, black hair, hung up by his neck with a thick rope which is tied upon the ceiling fan above. It takes me a while of staring and disgorging before I am able to grow the strength to fully enter. It's obvious this man has no will to live, I don't blame him honestly. If it wasn't for Jack inviting me onto that trip and forcefully saving me… I might've been in a similar situation.

I see no point in searching any further. It's only a small lounge with couches and shelves bunglingly placed around. In front of me, close to the deceased male, is a blue-striped chair with a stout, mahogany drawer next to it. My attention, however, is brought to a small blue book, nestled upon the drawers. I approach it with interest and find a blue book, with a thick texture, and a black pen next to it. The light-blue colour has always been my favourite and forces the book to appeal to me. I take it and stuff it into the inside of my jeans like a holstered gun, almost like my new companion.

Jack, Benjamin and I all meet back at the square. I see Jack carrying a branded bag, weighing down his arm, the contents appearing to be a vast amount of canned food. Benjamin returns empty handed, joining my new group of god-awful scavengers. With a mumble from Jack, we walk back from the village and back to the fields.

As we crisscross the field and its many flower patches and adolescent trees, a conversation spawns, starting with Jack confidently questioning Benjamin. "You seem like an… experienced man. What job did you have before retirement?" a pause of silence grows as usual before he replies, "Me? Ol' Ben ere' still works. Was a farmer in Ireland but economy's shite and we opened up a shop down in Waterford." Jack glances at him, continuing, "Mm.. How about that gun?" I only pay attention with my ears as I walk forward with a slightly higher speed than the others, "This ol' thing? Found it while we was escaping… C-Ca? Caen? Whatever it's called". Jack nods stiffly and the silence grows once again and we begin to re-enter the forest. Half way through our journey, reminding our way back with certain landmarks, we notice a thick black smoke north of us. It takes us a while to recognise but it's only when Benjamin begins to run like a horse when Jack and I notice what's wrong.

Benjamin gets quite the head start and we finally catch up to him, the smoke seemingly more thicker than we saw earlier. All we see is the back of the man's grey head, frozen in place. Jack slowly peaks past his shoulder, me following… As we approach the situation, we hear a quiet sobbing from the old man. I almost feel like joining him in empathy… We see his children… Lying there… Dead. Jack looks at the situation, much more uneasy than me, "Jesus Christ…". I approach Benjamin slowly… noticing his broken expression. He cries out before I can even speak, "M-my kids… T-Teddy?". I try to comfort him, placing my hand on his arm, only stuttering his name. It's scary, seeing an old man reduced to tears like this. You never know their next move. "Lacy… My beautiful girl…". I move myself away slightly, giving him the seclusion I'd want myself. I look down, silently mourning his loss. We only stand there… silently thinking. My attention is quickly re-focused on the man as Jack shrieks, "Benjamin! Don't!". My only sight is the sight of the old man's brain matter scattered across the forest floor as he fires one bullet against his head, painting the floor in a crimson colour. I only let out a small yelp over the sound, flinching. The agonising sound echoes across the forest, shortly followed by the hollow sound of his corpse, collapsing onto the ground. Jack stares at me with a deep calamitous look. It takes me a few seconds before it registers to me. I… could of saved him. If only I didn't… move away of fucking saved him. This whole experience has shown the child in me, constantly making these errors. This is all my fault.

After a few minutes of silently mourning the trio of lost lives, Jack decides to grab Benjamin's blood-covered gun. He wipes the red texture from the barrel of the gun and hands it to me, I take it with slight hesitation, almost dropping it with its surprising weight. We tremble over to the corpses of the children, inspecting the cause of death and if they have anything of interest while Jack faintly speaks, "I'll… I'll teach you how to use it later". I show no expression to this, I don't want to learn.

The cause of the sibling's death is rather peculiar… covering their faces like masks are two bullet holes, one each. The surrounding area of these holes is just a deep blackness, smelling horrible. It's almost as if someone propelled lava into their heads. The holes go straight through and show the ground under them as clear as an open window… If my science is correct, this is… Plasma. Jack and I look at each other curiously, we both hit a hypothesis as we do. Striders are too large to walk through these forests undamaged… The bullets that those dog-like aliens fire evidently explode, as seen from the handicapped male back in Le Havre, and gunships can't target through this thick forest… That means one other alien is brought to the table. An alien small enough to traverse these forests and kill at an unsurpassable rate. It's at this very point, we recognise we're not so safe anymore.

Chapter 4

Peace is a wonderful thing… The only thing I know of my surroundings is Jack's presence. I try, mostly, to think of what to do next. My mind is so jumbled, the aliens, the death… I'm just walking through it like a deadpan cyborg. Jack seems pretty content right now, the death of Benjamin seemed to affect him quite a bit. I almost feel jealousy in this, he showed nothing when he caused Leo's death. No… this shouldn't be a competition. My eyes open like a cat, I notice Jack's does too. We hear, in the distance, a loud marching, like boulders are striking the ground. Jack looks behind himself, shaken, "Dani… We gotta go, Now!". We disregard the bag of food between us, quickly raising to our feet. In the distance, human-like creatures are visible. It bears a fleshy, maroon skin with legs, arms, hands but no head… just a curved surface. A small group of them begin to form and they raise their arms, firing blue-colored bullets at us, the probable cause of death to the siblings. Jack roars as we begin fleeing into the opposite direction, "Run for it!". With the alien soldiers hot on our tail, we continue absconding with all our might away from them. A bullet just brushes the side of my face, I almost feel the intense heat of the plasma as it excruciatingly hits the tree next to me following with my painful shout. After 15 minutes of running, it seems we have lost them for now. We stop, noticing the sound of their stomping has stopped, and panting heavily. It's around this time I feel a faint mark on the left-side of my head, under my ear. It seems to have burnt off a lot of my hair but I'm still alive. I look to Jack, still panting, "W-We need to get out of here…," He scoffs at me, "Yeah, no shit". The forest looks a lot more shallow as we stand inside it, noticing fields and valleys through the trees. I nod to Jack and he leads the way as we finally exit this hell-hole of a forest, leaving behind the unfortunate corpses of 3 innocent souls… bound to an eternity of nothing.

Finally surfacing from the forest, Jack and I let out another few pants. We stand atop a very steep hill with a rickety, wooden fence just in front of us. I lean against in and take in the fresh air. Like most of France, this place is beautiful. Below this arduous hill appears to follow more decayed fences, making large squares which span into another forest, probably thousands of metres away. Inside these fences are a small crowd of horses, all beautiful and varying in colour. I almost fall in love with such a sigh and, without Jack's consent, I hop over the fence and carefully sledge down the hill, hitting a small rock painlessly at one point. Now closer in the valley, I notice this to almost form as an empty river. Beside this broad lowland lies two large hills which each lead to a deep forest, each unforgiving in our experience. To the north appears to be a small barn which is probably in ownership of these horses. One horse catches my eye, a mostly brown horse with white patches on it's stomach. It hearteningly returns the gaze at me and I decide to approach it. With a smile on my face, I stroke its neck. Jack slowly follows behind us and lets out a gasp, looking up. I follow his expression, noticing a dropship in the sky, carrying a metallic, streamlined box, around the size of a tank. It doesn't seem to notice us as it glides past the valley but the horses do, all growing started and anxiously dancing around the field over the sound. The horse I'm stroking, however, stays completely calm, reassuring me. I feel drawn to the horse, placing my head against its muzzle. Jack decides to break the connection, tapping me on the back, "Come on… We gotta keep moving". I nod sadly at him and follow him down the valley, heading to the colourless barn in the distance.

Now only a few inches away, we hear various snarls and grumbles from the pigs, most likely inside the barn. On the side of the barn is unreadable white text, covered in a fresh coat of paint. Shrugging, Jack and I begin to trod into the home, just behind the barn. The back door seems unlocked, Jack raises his gun and opens it with caution. The ambience inside is anti-climatic. You'd expect fury and fear over these new invaders but all we see is complete darkness, only illuminated by a television in the distance. We enter through a misty kitchen… slowly heading through the archway into the equally-depressing living-room… We see a mostly broad male, obviously bolding, watching the tv. A defunk 50s show plays and the man shows no care for us, smoking a cigar. Jack approaches him, still with his gun raised, "Hello…? Are you OK?" more silence ensues… Jack approaches furthermore and the man lets out a cough and a grumble. "Can't you let an old man die in peace…?" we stare at the farmer awkwardly, deciding it's best to leave him alone at his obvious request. After leaving the dark home, we notice a stone peak in the distance, just climbing over a small hill. Another town appears to be positioned around here, probably connected to the farm we stand on. Seeing as villages haven't caused the death of three innocent people, we decide it's best if we travel to and stay in this town until the war is over. My legs growing tired, Jack nods to me and we advance our journey onwards, probably leaving Le Havre's beautiful countryside the more we walk east.

As we edge closer and closer to the town, more and more appears. This one seems larger than the last with large buildings, houses and even a popular brand of stores. The town's name appears to be 'Rhone-Centre' from the newly placed sign companioning the main road which trails into the town. Another feature is apparent when we approach the area further… people! This encourages Jack and I to run to the town, either to warn the citizens, or beg them for safety. Once inside the town from it's large arch, we are greeted by a compact building with many windows clothing it, a suave, old lady greets us happily, not bothering to wonder why we are panting so hard. She greets us and speaks to us in French, Jack spits words to her quickly, even for the French language. The lady seems untroubled with inference than alien creatures are literally consuming most of Earth's population with its militia. Jack breaks down the conversation to me, apparently the people of this town and highly certain France's 'Brilliant Military' will keep its people safe. Ignorance is obvious a large factor of this community but we don't complain. We enter the town, discarding the brochure which was freely given to us, I turn to Jack, "You do have some Euros right?" He replies, digging into his pocket, "Should do…". We pause in silence, taking in the atmosphere, the newly-made houses, the enclosed road, the beautiful smell, the general happiness which almost poisons you to forget the horrors of the big cities. It makes me almost want to turn into some pessimistic monster, chanting how we are losing, how I literally saw 5 trained soldiers crushed by rock. After a few seconds, Jack lets out a small shout in happiness, "Here!... I got… 5.. 10… 20… Uh.. 95 Euros," I nod happily, "Good, save them… We'll have to buy out a hotel for tonight," We continue walking, much more calm as we scope out a cheap hotel or inn, "Mmm… Good idea".

10 minutes after walking down the maze of streets and we find a good enough hotel, almost preserved at the front of the street, just by the front entrance. Inside is a colourful ambience with cheerful music timidly playing like a shy child. A young female greets us, wearing the usual uniform. "Hello, welcome to Contentment Inn. How can I help you today?". Jack forcefully places down 24 Euros onto the counter after reading a small poster behind the female, "Room for two," the woman nods, taking the Euros as she types something onto the computer, leaving us in silence for a few seconds before continuing, "Right… You'll be staying in room six of floor two. We hope you enjoy your stay". We nod at the acting woman, taking the needed keys from the counter and heading up the stairs next to her.

There's little to say about the room when we walk in, cream walls, two striped beds, a confined kitchen. We only need to sleep and pay attention to new updates. Jack turns on a black television placed opposite the beds. Nothing happens for a while, Jack and I sit on the edges of our beds waiting for something to happen. After a while, the daunting sound of beeping continues, giving me another sick feeling. Finding myself having to bear the annoyance, we wait for someone to speak and… someonedoes. A highly static voice is heard, sounding deep and serious.

"Civil authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from the ground and attacking the living. Follow the messages on screen that will be updated as information becomes available. Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered highly dangerous. I repeat: Civil authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from the ground and attacking the living. Follow the messages on screen that will be updated as information becomes available. Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered highly dangerous. This warning applies to all areas receiving this broadcast. Please tune in at 9:30 A.M for more informa-". To our surprise, the speaking is interrupted by an annoying static before returning back to the beeping sound. After a while of plainly watching, amazed, I turn to Jack, "I-Is… is this real?... It can't… seriously.." as I stutter, tears in my eyes, another male begins to talk, probably cancelling the original broadcast.

"We interupt this programme. The following message has been issued by the Arizona State Department of Public Health. At 4:45 P.M Eastern time, An unknown parasite has spread through Chicago. There is nothing known of these parasites. However, it is known that the crab-like creatures have tendencies to latch onto a subject's face. Any person attacked by these creatures are guaranteed to reanimate from the dead. Please do not, in anyway, attempt to apprehend or subdue these creatures. It is highly recommended you shelter in your home by bordering your windows, doors, and any other area which can be used to enter or exit your home. Please note that more broadcasts will be released at 9:30 A.M Eastern time. We repeat. More broadcasts will be released at 9:30 A.M Eastern time." Small rounds of beeping follows and the channel turns back into static, leaving me only with a sick feeling. It's around 6 P.M. I decide to lie down and regain my energy, I need to calm down… Maybe, if I dream enough, I'll be woken by Leo, I'll be in my bed, in clean clothes, in warmth, with no pain… for once… I'd love to hear his crying.

"Dani… Psst… Wake up...". I feel surprised… The calm sounds… It was all a dream… Thank god. I open my eyes, looking around. I see the windows of our hotel boarded up up with the door locked with a chair under its handle. Maybe I'm mistaken. I sigh, "What's going on?". Jack returns a gaze at me, startled, "Didn't you hear the TV?" I shake my head, resulting in Jack turning the television back on, pressing a button which rewinds it to the start. A ruined looking man with a black, shaven head appears on the screen in white uniform. He appears to be sweating quite a lot with paper in front of him, he clears his throat beginning to speak.

"A-Attention all citizens… All… promises of information from the government will now… be revoked. After discussing terms with these 'invaders' I-I must conclude they are not, infact, demolishing Earth for what it has… they infact… wish to help." My face lights up slightly, hoping the war is over on peaceful terms, not exactly taking in the fact that aliens are confirmed, "I request, and this will be sent by all radios, that… All soldiers and military stand down. Earth… Surrenders. All attempts of… attacking our new benefactors will result in… off-world relocation. They and we… come and join in peace. Our bene-," I lose attention of the male talking. Jack looks out the window, much more startled, there appears to be a considering shaking and sound. Jack instantly pushes himself away from the window and grabs his gun, the male on the television still speaking.

"Shit, Dani we gotta go!" I nod to Jack, shivering in fear as he kicks the chair from the door and opens the room. As the door opens, we see a group of two older women and a young boy rush down the corridor, we follow as they seem to not care for Jack's weapon. As we exit the hotel, the sky is hauntingly grey. In the distance we see a gigantic portal, hundreds of miles in diameter. Overhead fly's two white ships, flying at almost light-speed. They appear to be headed for the portal which begins to ear-grindingly project a colossal, grey structure, 4 times bigger than the Burj Khalifa, the biggest structure on Earth. A large wave begins to travel across Earth in all directions as the structure pierces the ground. As we see the wave swiftly approach us, the crowd of people spectating this in front of us shriek and cover their ears, we follow the actions; the wave apsses us, almsot knocking me off my feet in a terrible shaking and an almost deafening sound. Jack shouts to me, as curious as me,

"What the fuck is this!?". I look at the tower, so far in the distance maybe even in another country but so immense… That's when it hits me… Earth surrenders…

It takes the citizens here a while before it hits them, that's when an all-out riot begins, just like on the plane. People screaming, crying, panicking. We head to the main entrance of the town, seeing a group of angered people, crowding around something. Jack and I decide to proceed into the crowd, seeing what's happening. Three males, all aged and bulky, have their guns aimed on a young black male. At first I wonder why he is being treated this way but it's when one of the leading men speak, I fully understand. The young man questions shakily, "I-I've done nothing… I swear! I'm not one of them!" one of the older males replies with a deep tone to him, "You don't need to say shit negro. We know all bout' your tricks". I stare at the exiled male, dark skin, dirty beige jacket, black rucksack, brown cargo trousers, I feel much sympathy for him and begin to tear through the crowd, slowly reaching for the pistol in my pocket. I don't exactly know what's going through my mind… But what I'm about to do is almost suicide. Jack silently tries to stop me, I shrug him off, nearing to the front of the spectacle. I unholster my pistol, firing it into the air. Two loud bangs, from the racist male's point of view, emit from the crowd. They turn to me, lowering their guns slightly, staring at me questioningly. "What do you think you're doing lil' missy?" Jack nears up behind me now that the crowd has spread apart in fear, Jack whispers to me, "What the hell do you think you're doing!? Are you trying to get us killed". I ignore Jack, keeping my gun raised and my sight closed on the harassed male, speaking with a booming voice, "If you haven't noticed, aliens have just terrorised this planet in 7 fucking hours. Right behind you is the sight of Earth's end. I suggest you go the fuck home, hug your kids, and leave this person the hell alone or it won't be the aliens you fear…". The men look at me blankly, almost laughing, but complying as they lower their guns. I nod to Jack, approaching the male in front of me and gesturing him to follow. Now taking charge, Jack, the lone male and I leave the town and leave its ignorance behind. Holstering my pistol, I allow Jack to lead, not knowing where we go from here. The male looks at me while I walk, "Thanks… For saving me back there," it's only until now that I notice that I discharged a weapon in front of an estimated 20 people. I just nod to him, "Name's Danielle… You?" "Oh.. Me? I'm Michael. I was a transfer student from Chicago. I don't even… I don't even know what I'm doing anymore." I nod to him, "None of us do I guess," I glance at Jack, "Uh… Where exactly are we heading?" Jack stops and thinks for a second… Beginning to walk again, "La Borde.. It's best we-," I interrupt, "But what about the whole surrendering thing? What do we do?" I look to him for reassurement, obviously troubled. He sighs, continuing, "We need to find a safe place to hide and hope things quieten down" . It's when Jack hardly even knows what to do that I realise we are walking mindless… With no goal. I guess we keep walking this endless road. I notice the horses have disappeared but try not to dwell on it. I can only be thankful we're still alive.

Chapter 5

We're around two miles outside of Le Havre, we can still smell the smoke and death from here. In the distance still lies a gigantic, metal bastion. It stares over us like a sun or a god, always there… no matter where we go. My legs begin to grow tired, this seems apparent for the rest of the group. We're unsure of where we are, the city we are in, however, is very dark, most buildings collapsed. Jack eyes a certain pharmacy, mostly intact. He grumbles, glancing at me, "I guess we better hide out in there for tonight," I nod to him and follow him, Michael behind me, silent and in his own world. As we edge near the door, it's apparent the door is poorly locked with chains. We decide to head to the back of the store and, thankfully, the door appears to be open. The inside is almost completely dark and the smell is completely horrendous. Jack looks to me and nods, I instantly understand the meaning of this, shakily grabbing my pistol from my pocket and flipping off the safety with a little struggle. As we open the second door, we find ourselves behind the counter of the store and begin to hear a cruel, disgusting sound. The infernal groans of a man, almost literally screaming his lungs out. At such high-pitch and sound that I almost scream with him. We edge closer, inspecting the sounds to see a tall male, completely drenched in blood. On his head lies a sort of crab-like creature, suckling sucking and chewing on his head. I notice he's no human, left speechless; Jack, however, is too blind tos ee this and approached him, "Hello?! A-Are you OK?!". I attempt to pull him back but the zombie-like man screams and causes Jack and I to retreat away from each other, Michael cowardly running back. I run backwards, shakily lifting my gun to the male as he edges closer, "Help! God! Help me!" is what I can infer from the distorted screams. I begin shouting, Jack finds himself unable to shoot, fearing he'll hit me. The zombie closes in on me, taking advantage of the shelves blocking my left and right. I begin firing my gun inadequately, cursing and shouting as the zombie continues screaming and begging for mercy. After emptying my pistol, the zombie finally comes to a halt, simply standing still until falling onto the floor, surprisingly leaking a yellowish blood from its head. I let out a series of pants and sigh in relief, "Dani! Are you OK?! Speak to me!" I gulp, looking down at my blood-stained shirt, "I-I'm good…". Jack runs over, hugging me by surprise, "Thank god…". I sigh, pushing myself away from him after a while and staring at the zombie on the ground. I almost jump when the room instantly lights up, I look into the distance, finding michael activating a fuse box.

After short discussion and 3 rounds of rock, paper, scissors, I am voted out to dispose of the zombie. Michael conveniently finds some gloves for me to use and I unhappily drag the corpse outside, almost puking at one point. I dragged the body quite a while away into a big dumpster across the street. It's beginning to grow dark and gunfire is still heard in the distance. Looking over my shoulder from time to time, I stroll back into the building. The lights are still activated but to keep ourselves hidden, I notice Jack and Michael covering and boarding the windows and back door with scrap wood and metal, quietly communicating to each other. I ignore them, I feel as if I have nothing to say as they both impressively reinforce the windows and walls. Without a word, I move into the bathroom behind the counter, entering the foetid, dark room. All I see inside is a toilet and a broken table which was probably hinged to the wall to change a baby's diaper. Almost falling to the floor due to my own emotions, I sit against the toilet… sitting blankly for a second… thinking. After a short while… all I do is break down into tears. What the fuck is happening?! I look down, holding and pulling my hair, punching the wall with the side of my fist at one point. I just don't know what to do. I know, but deny, that this is the end. Oh lord… End it… End it all.

 **Sat. 9th Sep. 2006**

 _It's been at least 2 weeks since the incident. My brother, Jack, reccomended I document my thoughts to atleast show some sort of recovery. Frankly I want to die. That's how it's been since the portal opened. I heard as my child screamed for my aid… I was forced, forced to abandon him from the one I once called a brother. He said it was for my own good, that I would've died. I plan on killing him soon. It's monstrous and I know I wouldn't… But it's my inner thoughts, that is what I feel… This is his fault._

 _I'm not writing this as to what he said, for my psychology; no, I'm writing this in hope. I've grown into a deep depression and inside… I feel as if someone in the future is reading this, that they care. Imagining that they care… That they pray for me… It's reassuring, it makes me feel good._

"Hey uh… Girl? You gotta get up". I open my eyes after being shaken, looking up at a young male, accompanying short blonde hair and green eyes with a scar across his cheek. I nod slowly, rubbing my eyes as he walks away. I sit up against the wall, sitting on my bed and I looking around. The campfire is still burning and I see Jack, Michael and 4 other people crowding around it, talking. Further away from the fire, I see bunk beds similar to the one I sit on now. On the bottom bunk, I see a male and female, comforting each other and mumbling optimistically. I let out a grumble and reach under my bed, grabbing for a small, grey pistol which I keep under me if ever needed. I place it in my pocket after checking the safety and head over to the fire, next to Michael. I fold my arms and warm myself against the fire, Michael looks at me with a sort of mocking smile, "Ah, Dani. You're just in time…. Uh… Jack, mind restarting?" Jack nods, clasping his hands together, "Right. Well it's been at least 4 months since the citadel was placed down. If my timing is right, they're still producing other lifeforms for what we know. We've sent scouts and found large cities, overrun and defended with walls. We suspect these are slave camps, labour camps or… death camps. Either way, now is a good time to strike one of the main towns. If we can head in, we'll be able to scavenge some good equipment from the military". Michael soon speaks after Jack, "Of course we'll have to take most-to-all of the artillery we have, just in case". I pay little attention to them both, looking around my surroundings. In the distance I see crumbled buildings, the large metallic structure still shining over them in a sort of angered presence. Smoke still emits from these buildings four months on. We're not sure why this is… I guess we're soon to find out. Another male from the crowd makes a clapping noise, bringing our attention to him, "May I suggest we prepare first? Not all of us are military veterans here. Jumping in like this is dangerous". Jack nods, "Sure. Go ahead, get what you need and be back here by 5". The group disbands into certain areas of our confined camp, I head off back to my bunk bed. I reach under my bed, grabbing the, now, blood-stained book I scavenged months ago. Next to it is a paper plate with oily meat juices laying on top of it. Yesterday was christmas… we decided to celebrate with gag-worthy tinned chicken and quiet murmurs and wishes. I open the book, skimming through the few pages of writing as I've been writing a diary since the war, under Jack's advice. I scroll to page 56 and a large square is carved out with putty filling it; The putty is shaped to fit my pistol and to test this, I secretly test if it still fits well, to which it does. I close it and place it in the bag on my back.

As we hit 10 minutes past 5, everyone's armed and ready to leave. The group of scavengers consists of Jack, Michael, three other males and I. In front of our small group is Jack with four huddled behind him, everyone carrying rifles apart from me, only holding my pistol shakily. Jack's been teaching me how to shoot and cut my hair. I still wear the same clothing I wore when this all started; the only thing that's changed in me is my hair, which Jack almost forced me to cut for 'your own safety' in his words, it's only 10 inches long now. Moving in closer to the city, we begin to see sources of the smoke. For the most part, it's debris and wood which is scattered across the ground. The group scatters, inspecting around the area; one of the male comments, "This… This is quite recent. You think aliens are closing in on the camp?" Jack mumbles in agreement, moving around some debris with the butt of his gun. I simply stand there, taking in the environment with fear inside me. Another, older male glances at me while checking his gun, "Hey uh… Girl…. Mind making yourself useful? Standin' there ain't gonna help our investigation round here," I nod to him and grasp my gun, eyeing out the buildings; one of the buildings catches my sight, beige bricks, graffiti painting them. I decide to head over to it, walking around the back. To my surprise, I see a recently destroyed VAP beside the building with bricks and wood scattering over it from the wall. The camo on it is mostly singed and the gun on top appears to be missing. I hear beeping and static coming from the tank-like vehicle and without asking for assistance, I edge closer to investigate. On the side of the vehicle, I notice bold grey text, almost unreadable; I trace it with my finger, the metal still hot from conducting the heat of the fire. All I am able to read, barely, is "C-M-D," above the text is what seems to be a logo: the logo appears to be the head of a wrench with a cracked skull inside it. The context of these logos are profound to me but I shrug it off, climbing the vehicle, peering slowly into the cockpit… The beeping comes from a male still sitting inside. I already notice he is dead but decide to climb in anyway.

I cough rapidly due to the small amount of smoke and bury my face into my breast pocket to breath a little easier. The deceased male appears to be completely in white uniform, I turn him over to investigate more. The uniform he wears is quite intimidating, his mask only shows one big red eye in the middle like a cyclops, his chestplate is quite obviously kevlar... but due to how hard it was for me to turn him, it is obviously heavy. There appears to be a badge on his right with the same wrench and skill logo as before, and his trousers are just white cargo shorts, padded with kevlar. Under him is a large black rifle with, what appears, to own two barrels stacked above each other. Just before the barrels is a large C-shaped clip which is probably where the ammunition is stored. I am able to lift the weapon with struggle and to avoid suffocation, I decide to take it with me as I exit the tank. I let out a cough, dropping the weapon; Slowly bending to the floor after letting out another series of coughs, I notice a small button at the top of the gun. I decide to press it after getting to my feet… Waiting for what happens. I jump as a loud static noise emerges from the tank and a robotic-sounding woman speaks, "Code 16 located at the 10-20 of ECHO-00735. 97.95 percent chance of code 10-34. 10-40, SWORD". I stand there, contemplating what was just said…

In the distance, I hear shouting from one of the males in our group, "Hey! Over there! Thank the lord!". I rush over quickly to rejoin the group, still holding my gun. I run next to Jack with the rest of the men in front of us. In the distance, almost hiding themselves behind a building, is a group of the same white-uniformed males, thankfully alive this time. I almost thank the god I believe not in, we're saved! It's quite obvious the main world leaders have brought out the big guns… These alien fucks are going to silicone hell. The ecstatic male continues to speak, "We've been stuck out here for a while now… We uh… We have a few other friends at our camp, mind if we go-," he's interrupted and one of the white figures speaks in a deep, vocoded voice, "647E, Code 6, Amputate". I look to Jack questionably, his face begins to freeze and as we look back at our spokesperson, a loud gunfire is heard and his head simply explodes seconds after. I scream and run to cover as the figures begin firing at us. The group of 'soldiers' begin unfold, it's seen that 4 of them have come to end us. Jack and the rest of the group begin to fire at the soldiers, also firing commands at each other. I look down at my newly-found gun and peer at the uniformed men from behind the destroyed car I use as cover, bullets seem to do little effect to them as they strike their kevlar. Now that I see it, the gun I hold is highly similar to the one they use, which sound like metal colliding and project plasma. I squeeze the gun tightly, raising from my cover in a swift motion and pulling the trigger… Nothing happens… all it does it click and beeping emerges from the gun again. I see one of the soldiers aim at me and in desperation I press a small button under the trigger. A large charging sound is heard and the group looks to me from their cover, in a bolt of light, a large ball of energy is discharged from the gun, making a terrible exploding sound. The sheer force pushes me back to the wall and as I look over to the group of hostiles, the retreat backwards. The ball of energy just misses them, hitting a wall behind them however comically returning to the opposite direction like light on a mirror. In an instant, the whole group screams, coming out as static from their vocoders; their corpses turn to black and almost instantly disintegrate as they float into the air. Everyone looks at the empty space from where our attackers once were then look to me, as surprised as I am. I drop the gun, shaking. That one press of a button I have caused the instant end of one's life… Michael runs over to me, "Dani! the fuck was that?!" I only stare back as he finally reaches me, "I… I don't know…"

After a while of talking and seeing if any remains were left from the now non existent soldiers, our group of 5 decides to head deeper into the city. We only walk down the streets and briefly scope out if anything can be looted, Michael now leading the group as Jack stays with me, either to stop me from causing trouble or being the death to trouble. A certain building catches Jack and I's attention. A police station which awkwardly sits between half of a car-park and a charred diner. Jack shouts to the group, raising his gun slightly, "Hey! How about in there? Seems unlooted," the group agree and without question, we head inside. There's nothing much that I find. Deciding I'm of no use, I lean against the wall in the main lobby. Out of boredom, I open my bag and retrieve my diary, heading to the first page. Without even looking to him, Michael leans on the wall next to me to which I greet him, "Can I help you?". I sense him staring at me with a sort of wonder, "What exactly was that back there? How'd you know how to use them things?". I laugh slightly, trying to keep a serious tone, "I didn't. You don't really take time to investigate when you're three nanoseconds from having your brain turned to mush," Michael only mumbles with a sarcastic high-pitched tone. "I remember when I was a kid… I don't know… Like 8? Had a BB gun this big," he places his arms far apart, obviously exaggerating, "I shot my momma by accident one night, never heard the end of it," I only answer with an obviously fake laugh, still reading down in my book. "Eh… What is that thing anyway?" I still read the first page, gently grabbing the ultrasound picture of Leo, "It's just a thing I've been writing… Nothing you need to get into". After a nod, our awkward conversation is interrupted by a shout from one of the group, I am not able distinguish what he just said however. The remainder of the group and I all run to the back of the police station, we are all surprised to see a mostly intact police car, obviously French with its ugly curves and poorly-added paint. Jack interrupts the man before he can continue yelling in happiness "Jesus Christ. How'd you find this? Imagine the shit we can do this with this!". I begin to close myself off before anyone else can continue, only staring at the car and the old picture of Leo, almost crying. After a minute I still stare and almost go deaf, paying attention to nothing. As I look to the car, I place the picture in my pocket after giving it a slight kiss in goodbye.

With a movement that goes unnoticed, I slowly withdraw the pistol from my pocket… flicking off the safety. My experience in this new life flashes before my eyes and I hardly even think… doing what I've wanted to do this whole time. JAck glances at me, "Uh… Dani.. What are you do-," I interrupt him, quickly raising my gun, "Shut the fuck up! All of you!". Everyone looks to me, taking me half seriously, "Open the fucking door now!". Michael slowly approaches me with his arms out beside him, "Dani… Come on now… You're not going to shoot Jack, and you're not going to-," I rudely interrupted again, shooting him in the upper leg while showing little emotion; emotion in the situation I'm in now is what'll get me killed. "Agh shit! You crazy bitch!"; I shout over Michael's cries and moans, "I better get some fucking keys before I end his suffering!". The blonde male that woke me up earlier slowly approaches, stopping and throwing some keys onto the floor, nodding. I grab the keys from the floor with my gun still raised. While I try to walk to the car, another male from the group attempts to tackle me but is stopped by the shouting of Jack before he can jump to me, "No! J-Just let her go…". I look Jack straight in the eyes and see his sorrow… I return nothing… this is all his fault. Making many mistakes, I finally get the car started, abandoning the group as I drive away in my new vehicle, beginning to break down and cry as I drive over the debris and into less-narrow areas. At first… I have no idea where to go. That leaves me with only one option… end my journey… in the death camps. They win. I give up.

I notice, after leaving the city our group was in, that we was actually closer to Paris than I originally thought. In the distance, I see the iconic Eiffel Tower, almost unseeable with so many metallic, blue walls standing in front of it like a distanced body-guard It's quite noticeable that parts of the tower were destroyed, now replaced with blue-lit technology, lights and other metallic structures; obviously the main place of operations for this new 'City'. I still feel like breaking down. It would be easy to simply kill myself, but like a child I am curious to what these aliens have done to Earth; I just hope my death will be painless. I stop the car half a mile outside the city, using the buildings outside it to hide myself. Constant fly-bys are heard from gunships, dropships and… helicopters? I can only catch a glimpse of these helicopters, obviously alien ones considering their gimmicky blue-metallic look and obscure structure. In the distance, I see another one of those VAP's from earlier, trailing a similar container, stremelined container that the dropships carry. I assume there's no 'grand front entrance', my only guess is that this is the way in. I jump out from behind my building cover, shouting for the vehicle's attention. My heart-drops as the VAP stops… this is the end…

Two white men climb out, hastily aiming their assault-rifles at me and shouting commands, "647R located at hardpoint 426 - Get on the ground!". Without resistance, I slowly lay myself onto the ground with my hands against my head. One of the soldiers ties my wrists with a ziptie, stinging them tightly in the process. Without conversation, I am grabbed from the back of my shirt and sat onto a seat in the container with 8 other people. It is too dark to see any distinction between them and they all look down. I decide to follow this gesture of sadness… no one talks though that is only in fear, not arrogance. All I can think about is my book. I was able to place my pistol in the putty. If I do get through alive… Perhaps is could come to use.

After a small while of driving, we finally stop. It takes my eyes a few seconds to adjust but once I am forcefully dragged outside the truck I am able to see where we are, we appear to be in a corroded, sombre room, thick with dust. Some technology is scattered in the area but I notice not of what it does as I am quite quickly dragged into a secluded room, away from the big arches that stands in front of the parked truck. The room itself is quite dark. A very tall soldier idly stands in the room, clad with with a dark grey, kevlar uniform. His mask has two eyes instead of the single eye the white soldiers own, and his mask is more human-like with a smooth curve on its bottom. He looks at me with his dark red eyes. Once the white soldiers who escorted me leave the room, the red-eyed male lets out a static laugh, proving to me much more that these are humans. I am confused, as of now, why humans are helping the aliens but I am more pre-occupied with what awaits me. The male, with the point of a finger, orders me to stand close to a blue metallic door, to which I do. He gradually walks over to me, creating suspense. Without hesitation, the man grabs me, turning me around and ripping my bag off my back, hurting my arms and causing me to let out a yelp in pain. After a second of searching through my back briefly, he proceeds to grab my shirt, ripping it off along with the rest of my clothes after a while. I feel slightly insecure, now naked, but stay calm, breathing . "Open!" I look to me right after the male shouts, the geologic doors open almost in an instant and I take initiative by stepping inside. The room is completely made of clean white tile with a few thick grates covering the ceiling. I expect this to dismay a chemical or gas, only closing my eyes and breathing in more rapidly. Nothing happens however… only a slightly warm dosage of water sprinkles me, cleaning my body. The water is quite fulfilling but doesn't feel like any normal liquid. After a few seconds, the shower stops and beeping is heard before the door finally open. The doors then open again to which I am ordered outside the room. Now more confident that I'm not threat, the same soldier cuts my ties with a small knife, handing me a stack of blue clothing. It merely consists of blue cargo trousers, a blue shirt and a cleaner version of my undergarments. I stand there, frozen and returning eye contact with the male. He nods, "Affirmative," handing me a suitcase. "Suitcase contents: One Union Issued Ration, One Union Issued Drink. One Pre-War Book. One Set of Union Issued Clothing. One Citizen Identification Card." I look down at the case I am holding as the male speaks, the entrance to the room opens as another man is dragged inside, anger on his face. The white soldiers carrying him stare at the grey soldier one of them speaking in a deep voice, "Citizen is 647E. Amputate," The grey soldier glances in return, "10-4. Female, get out of my face," I nod hesitantly… slowly exiting the room. Beside the arch, I see another pair of white, masked soldiers who both nod for me to walk through, I follow their orders and almost instantly see a train, its doors open by a track. It appears the room is inside a dark tunnel and I assume that I must step onto the surprisingly normal train. After sitting down, the doors quickly close and the train dispatches. Opposite me is a male, quite apparently depressed; some other people litter the train carriage, all silent and looking down. I once again decide to follow this gesture, only wondering the fate of the male back at the train station.

My daydream is interrupted annoyingly by the loud sound of the train closing to a quick halt. The doors of the train open and as I stand with my suitcase, the boisterous voice of a female speaks, still sounding as synthetic as the previous one I have encountered, "Welcome to City 16. Please enjoy your stay and remember to assign for civil protection as your local Civil-Workers-Union office located by Street 60506." I exit the cart, covering my eyes from the light and allowing them to adjust. I find myself in a brightly-lit warehouse of sorts. The roof shows remnants of glass panels but is overall covered by this 'Union's iconic metal. This place seems mostly happy… Maybe everything is not so bad though I still yet have to make judgements. Spending no time to look at my surroundings, I leave the station through a small black door close to the train. The door exits to a dark alleyway and I decide to leave the alley, investigating the street. The street I find myself in is… a different story. It is completely narrow with destroyed buildings and an awful smell. Dotted all around in clusters are groups of people, crying and mourning lost loved ones. One female catches my eye, sitting on her own by an old apartment block; the girl resembles me in how she looks and only sits there, looking down in tears. I approach her, bending to one knee as I look to her, "H-Hey… Are you OK?" she glances up at me, wiping her eyes, "My dad… They took him…," "What do you mean..?". The girl takes a while, wiping her nose as she continues, "We was… We was just in this store… They took us to this dark room… they asked if he was law enforcement… H-He said yes… He was after all. Then they took him, t-they said he'll be here with me soon… That I'll have to wait…," she breaks down into tears again and I decide to leave her alone, standing again. It's at this point, I notice something in me… I feel nothing. The road only angles upwards until it reaches an alleyway, covering this angle is just crowds of people, crying and sitting alone. Families… Loved ones… All torn apart. But in spite of this… I feel nothing for them. What am I becoming?

There's no point waiting any longer, I a desperate to see if my plan succeeded. I head up the road and into the debris-filled alleyway which progressively darkens, only heading to a clamped street of abandoned buildings. I look to my left and my right, taking my book from my suitcase. Success! The gun is still in there, covered in the sticky putty. As I close it to place it back in my case, a charming voice startles me from behind, "Sneaked it in huh?". I look behind myself, seeing an average male, bearing the same clothing as everyone else and is topped with short blonde hair, blue eyes and a five o'clock shadow. His face seems mostly clean but leaves remnants of scars; he only stands there, staring at me with a slight smile. I only nod slowly and he continues, "I see… I got a group of friends not far from here. Want to meet them? It's better than what they're doing out there," He nods to the alleyway I just emerged from and I only mumble in agreement. "Ah… Good, we need more help as it is."

After a few seconds of eyeing the male, I follow him, "Anyway. What's your name?" "Mine…? Uh, Danielle," He lets out a chuckle, "Nice to meet you. Just uh… Call me Anthony." I nod again, following him through a more narrow pathway, more or less curious for what lies in store for the girl who just sneaked in an illegal pistol to an alien-controlled city.

Chapter 6

" _Will you remain loyal and faithful to the Universal Union for as long as you live?" I clear my throat as the static-voiced elite looks to me with a pen in his hand. His white uniform is slightly darker than most and his one eye is a blue tint instead of red. I ponder over this question but the soldier seems calm, most probably because I'm the last one to be questioned… Not like he's got anything else to do. I let out a stutter, "Uh.. of course.". The unit lets out a small breath, usually quite rare to hear from them, It gives me the shivers as he does. "Why do you want to join the Civil Protection?" This question makes me pause, thinking. It's obvious, I'm hungry… but they're not made… to think that; they're brainwashed to think everyone loves the Combine, anyone who doesn't is obviously evil. I breathe loudly for a second and say the biggest lie possible, most likely sealing my new future, "Well… Uh.. Ever since our benefactors gave us the opportunity… I strived to take it. My only goal is to help the Universal Union in anything it requires me to do…". The unit nods; it's quite amusing seeing such a tall person, their gender unknown, do such a menial task as filling in applications, it's like watching a gorilla use a calculator. It finishes writing, turning the clipboard over and handing me the pen, "Sign". I nod, not reading what it says above and writing my name in black ink below, 'Daniel Adams'. Once done, he snatches the pen and clipboard from me and stands up from his wooden chair, exiting the room from the sized metallic door behind me. I shiver from the cold and look around the room. Parts of it is remnants from the old world, crumbled brick which emits more dust than an old book, mixed together with solid metal which is none of what I've seen before. The whole room is empty, just an obvious one-way window, a table and two chairs with a light above me which dimly illuminates me with a flicker. After a few minutes, the door behind me opens forcefully and a bright light rushes through it into the room; I peer over my shoulder to find a different soldier looking at me. His uniform completely grey with shining red eyes, "Citizen, come with me". "Uh… Ok…," I shakily stand from the uncomfortable wooden chair and approach the soldier; he continues to walk and trail me through the nexus._

 _Unlike the citadel which is miles from here, this nexus supports the Civil-Protection, instead of the Combine soldiers, such as the elites, in white uniforms. How I know this is another story… I tend not to ponder on the ones I've lost to that citadel, never to return. We finally approach a large room. The unit uses his wrist and opens the door to a sensor, behind it is a second mechanic door, many metallic pillars and poles cover it with a dark purple colour. We finally enter a red-lit room with guns and uniforms hung up from place to place. The unit points to a locker, '67552'. I open the locker slowly; I'm presented with a clean uniform, severely different to the other soldiers. The mask is an egg-white colour with blue eyes which look like they're soon-to-be lit up with lights inside the mask. The uniform is an almost black purple colour with two belts circling the waist and an almost skirt-like end on the bottom, supposedly similar to a trenchcoat. The trousers are just brown cargo-slacks with two white stripes on the outer-sides. Hung up at the very back of the locker is a kevlar chest piece, a miniature white rectangle placed in the middle; next to the chestpiece is a big metallic stick with paltry stripes of copper on the tip, on the bottom named 'stunstick'. With pressure from the soldier next to me, I place the uniform on, replacing my usual blue clothing. Without allowing me to think, he grabs my old clothes and places it on top of another locker. I then grab the kevlar, placing it above my head, I grab my new 'stunstick' and last of all… the mask. The one thing which takes my identity. Once placed on, I will no longer be human… With a gulp, I place the mask over my face and after a second of darkness, the blue lights activated and a head appears with the top right corner of my vision filling with notices and codes. With the beeping of activation from my mask, I am now one of many... Civil Protection._

We've been walking for a while now. We've not yet encountered any of those white soldiers but I try not to linger on that and only take it as luck. "We're close now… Just gotta avoid any patrols," I nod and continue following him. It's something about this 'Anthony' figure that confuses me. Why, out of nowhere, would be trust me? Some would think that after witnessing a mass genocide, killing more than half the population, would give one trust issues but I guess it's more admirable of him to be this way, rather than stupid. A certain gut feeling hits me once we reach a residential district. It's quite obvious these 'Cities' are under construction. The sound of metal clanking and gunfire still lurks in the distance, proving to me that this abandoned area will soon house thousands of enslaved people. The area still show remnants of fire and smells as bad as any other place. It is merely a large square with certain indistinguishable buildings making its sides; the road here stops at a curve and when I follow where it leads with my eyes, all I see is rubble and debris blocking it, crowning the alleyway we just left as its only entrance. I'm not surprised when Anthony tells me we are here, this place seems perfect to hide for now. I follow Anthony as we enter a half-destroyed apartment block with minimum fire damage.

The inside of this place is mostly clean, it has its usual circular desk which was obviously used for people to check in, also carrying two rooms to its left and right. Anthony gives me no time to inspect the other room as he trails me into the left, heading up the stairs. Up stairs is no different, the wood seems partially cauterised with most of it blocked off with rubble. To our right is a door and Anthony steps ahead of my, knocking on it, "Hey. It's me. Open up!". After the sound of the door unlocking thrice, it opens to the face of a fairly cute female, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. She looks more affected than I and seemingly cared not for her own 'safety', as Jack puts it, as she still dresses in pre-war clothing and bears long, messy hair. We're invited inside and I find a circle of armoured males, with another well-dressed female in the corner. One of the male peers over his shoulder, looking mostly old with light grey hair and moderately broken military uniform. "Anthony, who the hell is this?" "Oh her? This is Dani. Found her near the station and thought-," The elder male interrupts, destroying Anthony's smirk, "I said no more refugees. We can't be taking in anymore! You'll blow our operation," Anthony recreates his smile, "Calm yourself there Alec Baldwin, she sneaked in weapons. She can only help, alright?". The man gripes and bites his lip, staring at me as I slightly hide myself behind Anthony, "Fine...".

I place my suitcase by the door, looking around at the abolished apartment room. Nothing in here is notable, just some sofas, a map and a table; in the distance I see a partly-destroyed radio to which the well-dressed female stands by. By the time I stop investigating the area with my eyes, the occupants of the room all stare at me. Anthony taps me on the arm, "Let me introduce you to the mystery crew," Only he chuckles as he does this and points to the grey-haired male on the far left, "That's Everett, don't mind him. He's just got sand in his vagina," the old man lets off another grumble and Anthony points to a second male on Everett's left, "That's Reginald, our medic," I hear nothing of Reginald's reply, only noticing his long brown hair and his noticeable scar that trails down his cheek, his 'uniform' of sorts consists of a dirty brown shirt and blue jeans with a red cross on his right arm. Anthony then moves his position, facing the female who opened the door to us, "That's Iris. She's our.. Instigator of sorts," the female only lets a small wave back, mainly conserving herself from my sight; Anthony then directs my sight to the final male in the circle who appears quite young and is obviously of German descent, "That's Uh.. Well we just call him Killian for short. He was in the military during the war and obviously, to avoid being one of those white things, he has to hide." Anthony then finishes his introduction and glances at the female at the back of the room, raising his voice as if he's addressing her, "And that sack of nuts and bolts is Nadia. She's our main engineer of sorts, been' trying to fix us up a long-range radio." Nadia mumbles, moving slightly to the left to present herself to me, "Mm. Pleasure to meet you," her clothing is quite elegant. It consists of a long blue and white striped shirt with a long matching skirt, all modified with knitted pouches, kevlar and holsters for tools and, most likely, guns. Her hair is also well-styled, it appears to be quite black and short with a cowlick facing to the left of her hair. Anthony then looks to me, letting out a small laugh, "And as you already know, this handsome hunk of junk goes by Anthony," I only look back, unamused like the rest of the room. Nadia grimaces, "Ant there's really no time to be flirting with newcomers, go get her set up and tell her what we're doing." Anthony only bellyaches, upset his jokes go unnoticed, "Alright, come with me". I follow him after grabbing my suitcase, curious as to what's in store for me.

Inside the archway is the second room, highly cramped and containing 9 beds, one broken beyond repair. Anthony taps me on the arm again, "You can sleep on any bed that's free. Of course," he smirks at me jokingly, "If yours is ever uncomfortable, you can always share with me," I only let out a carp, giving him a glance, "I think I'll pass". In Front of us is a door, Anthony leads me to it, opening it to another cramped room. Inside are green, alloy boxes with certain military symbols poorly painted on. Anthony opens one of them and to my surprise, kevlar and ammunition are inside. He bends down, digging his hands into the crate and fishing out a dark green shirt and brown trousers. With the clothing, he'd fish out a small brown box, along with a kevlar chestpiece, talking as he does, "We've been getting trouble with cps for a while, we've gathered this so far.." he'd then hand me the 'uniform' and other accessories, "Uh… The bathroom's behind the door next to Nadia's workbench; I don't mind if you get changed in here though," He lets out another chortle to which I follow with no reaction, navigating to the main room I was introduced to and, with Nada's assistance, head into the bathroom after finding where it is.

The clothing was easy to place on, while dirty, it fits comfortably. The kevlar, however, is another story. I can't seem to get it on properly; I understand you place it on above your head but connecting it is awful.

It takes me 5 minutes but after constant fiddling, I am able to forcefully clip the four connectors on each side, squeezing against my chest and stomach and giving me an awful tight feeling. It's like trying to walk around in a child's attire but I'll soon get the hang of it. I head out of the bathroom and Iris, unlike everyone else, notices my discomfort, letting out a quiet laughter at me. I stumble over to where she leans against the wall and recline against the wall next to her. "Why are you finding this so funny? I don't see the humor in it." she lets out another laugh, "Oh don't take it to heart, Just uh… move around in it a little, you'll get the hang of it," I rumble, glancing at her, "You seemed quite uncomfortable earlier, is there a problem?". After a short sigh, she replies, "It's nothing, I just don't like newcomers," "Oh..? Why's that?" she pauses against, looking down and upset quite quickly, "S-See.. Now you've reminded me… My boyfriend… He used to be with us, not long ago." I look at her intently, "Then one day… This new kid came in, he was.. I don't know… twenty-two? He only stared at us… It was weird. T-Then one day some cps raided us and…," After this, she begins to break down and I dislike being the cause of it. I pat her on the shoulder, "We've all lost someone.. I'm sorry." I only frown and walk away, it's probably best to leave her to her mourning.

As I push myself away from the wall, I am greeted by Anthony as he steps through the archway, "Hey Dani, come with me," I nod and follow him as we make a short journey past the circle of males talking and to Nadia at her small workbench, appearing to be tweaking a radio. I only notice her strong french accent as she greets Anthony, "Finally ready to get this started are we? Or do you wish to continue to harass the poor girl?" Anthony sneers, "Oh come on I'm only joking". Nadia clears her throat, "Well. As you see, I've been trying to recreate a long-distance radio. If we can, we can co-ordinate communication throughout, I hope, most of Europe… Of course there's an issue," I interrupt nervously, "What would that be?" She clears her throat, "The issue… would be that we have no receivers, or transmitters for that matter." I speak again, Anthony staying completely quiet, "Can't you just take one from the radios those soldiers have?" She laughs and returns to tinkering with the radio, "Well yes, one with little experience would think that. But no, that's simply not how it works. Now we recently thought of investigating the slums for anything, that's why we've been so desperate to recruit people who are actually… Proven." I nod in agreement, "When do we plan on leaving?" It's at this point that Anthony butts in, "Well we was thinking of heaving out quite soon, that's what the guys are talking about." I mumble, glancing at the men. With Anthony leading, I awkwardly move myself into the circle of men, the discussion growing louder and louder. I see Killian talking in his strong german accent, "To which would be undesirable; Knowing this is a factor though, I'd recommend we search as little of the apartments as possible. Most people would have evacuated items from their homes anyway," Reginald interrupts, "But there could be survivors there; we're not just in this for some stupid ass radio". The argument begins to unfold, I only sit there… Thinking. I notice Iris still upset in the corner, I feel guilty over this but… Maybe it's what she needs. After a while of conversing and Iris' eventual input, we all decide to scavenge the slums of the City for any use. Knowing this, I grab my suitcase from the bedroom and the green box I forgot which I left in the bathroom. After grabbing the box and noticing the clothes I left clumsily in the bath, I find some rounds of pistol ammunition inside… This strikes me… it only hits me now what I'm doing with my life now. As usual, I bottle this up… try not to dwell on it and just get through life.

Apart from Nadia who decided to remain inside, the group and I all formats before leaving. Anthony and I stay at back while the rest of the group, including Iris, lead. After conversation and weapons checks of our pistols and, for some, smgs, we are ready to leave. For the most part, we travel down destroyed streets, they all look the same to me, just depressing residue from the past. Anthony and I hardly ever head inside, we're only designated to keep lookout on the outside while the others search the buildings. 'Rue LeBlanc' is the only evidence of what this street was from the sign which barely hangs onto one of the decayed buildings. Anthony nudges me, whispering, "You think we still have any Frenchie's sheltering here?" I only mumble in reply and he continues, "Well if there is, I call first dibs. I heard French girls are quite the lookers," I let out a fake laugh, "Ahaha, yeah. Amazing!" he snickers, "Oh cmon girl. There's no need to be like that." I only glance at him back the second he replies to my sarcasm, I'm in no mood for jokes and he seems not to respect this, "Look, I appreciate you recruiting me to this and everything, but you're a real cunt, you know that?" another laugh is let out by him, annoying me much more, "Well you know what they say: You are what you eat". I ignore him from this point, only glancing around the area. Overhead, a dropship flies past, carrying a strider with its octopus-like tentacles. "Oh shit… Looks like some people are about to have a bad day," I begin to look at him with fury, "Is this a fucking joke to you?! Is the fact tha-," Everett interrupts me, shouting from the apartments above, "Could you shut the hell up?! We don't need the whole of Paris knowing we're here!" I only grumble, annoyed. For once Anthony seems to acknowledges this and looks to me with a more serious face, "Alright… Look I'm sorry Dani. Maybe we're getting off on the wrong foot. I don't want us to be enemies here… I just don't want to dwell on what's going on. You know we've all lost someone." I'm surprised by his brutal honesty, expecting some punchline but after a while, it's never delivered. I just nod and continue my stance, investigating the area.

After 10 minutes, the group finally assembles back onto the street empty-handed. I notice Iris still pretty depressed. Our talk surely couldn't have completely changed her… Maybe she was always like this. It takes us some more argument but the group and I agree to head further down the street, and we do. It takes us a full hour of stopping, searching and moving throughout the streets when we finally reach a dead end, finding ourselves at an almost drained river… Have the Combine been draining our water? I evaluate this a for a while but something catches my attention in the corner in my eye… In the far distance, at the opposite side of the river is a floating metallic… eye? It has four triangular plates around it's one red eye and levitates up and down, staring at me. I tap Anthony on the arm as he is facing the opposite way. He turns, "What, decided to give daddy a big hu-" his face grows serious as he sees the scanner, "Shit! Scanner!". To my surprise, this instantly drags the rest of the group out of the apartments. Although it's obvious that this is a threat, Anthony only grabs his gun… Never firing. It's once the rest of the group finally evacuates the apartments that the firing begins. This 'scanner' is continuously fired at as makes a weird array of robotic beeping sounds as it edges closer, trying to weave in and out of the bullets. I think in my mind as they shoot at it. Any decent think would understand that a 'scanner' obviously spies and records things… To this extent, I scream an order, "Stop firing! Stop it!". The group slowly stops, glancing at me. I only stare as the scanner recollects its artificial thoughts, flying away as it notices its damage. This retreat should leave us time to gather the same ideas as the scanner. We all look behind us at a similar timing, like a choir. Behind me I notice two destroyed cars, making a small gap for you to enter and see the river. I only note this because… in the distance… a car is heard. My heart drops and I instantly rush towards one of the destroyed cars, retrieving my gun from my pocket. the rest of the group does this, rushing towards the car opposite mine while Anthony rushes next to me. By the time we all take cover, gunfire already begins as the car's top-mounted gun begins to fire. The car that shoots at us is of weird shape. It adopts the same dark-blue colour as every other one of the Combine's technologies do and has a weird curve of metal above its wheels. The gun is obviously controlled by one of the 'Civil Protection' members sitting inside a class casing on the car's top. The back doors of the car opens and 5 CPs exit. We're still suppressed, however by the gunfire of the car. After a while, Killian grows annoyed, grabbing a grenade from his pocket and rolling it under the car, almost getting his hand shot off. A furious explosion materialises from the car with a vocoded screaming coming from one of the units. Beeping occurs and the robotic female that was heard from the gun in the outlands speaks, "Unit down at 47283. All units contain". After we are freed from the oppressive gunfire, the group begins to raise from their cover, returning the favour to the remaining units. Anthony mostly avoids gunfire from the msot point. I raise from my cover, glancing at one of the well-protected units. For a second… we stare at eachother… He's obviously a recruit but we still stare… enemies but humans… victims to this all the same. An armband on him reads '67552' and he knows death is coming as I pull the trigger of my gun. With one shot, his mask is hollowed and the bullet pierces his skull. The same scream and beeping is heard and he falls to the floor, blood covering his digits. I regain my cover behind the car and pant in fear. I killed someone… I caused death…

One by one the units are eventually picked off, only leaving one with an smg as he proceeds to fire at us time and time. Our group is almost completely dry of ammo and so am I, after many failed shots at the units. I turn to Iris. She has ammo in her pistol and she looks down at in in anger. In a quick movement, she jumps from her cover, "This is for Dmitri you piece of shit!". This is almost like a movie. She begins to fire at the unit and run from her over, shouting. Anthony quickly notices this, "Iris! No!". After he shouts… One shot is heard… Iris' lifeless body drops to the ground in an instant, to the unit's amusement… My heart drops more and more… she's dead. Anthony seems the most affected. He runs from his cover and quickly runs to her aid, too naive to hold himself back and accept her death. Lucky for him, the unit is out of ammo but he begins to reload. At this point… I freeze… I see the other group, digging for ammo in their pockets… I see Anthony… pushing down on Iris' heart desperately… I see the unit… reloading and repairing his aim for his next victim. In a flash of reaction, I drop my pistol and jump over the car.

The unit is looking down at his belt for his next smg clip. Everything still moves slow for me as I push past Anthony and leap onto the unit in anger. He lets out a static groan and places his forceful grip on my shoulders as I pounce on him like a lion on an antelope. I punch down forcefully on his mask, hurting my hand and making it bleed; this hit still hurts him, however, and he screams more. The punch the unit returns to me is much more painful and dases me. This gives him time to reach for the knife on his belt. He raises it to my face and I place one hand on his wrist… trying… to push it away… His laugh is maniacal and he pierces my cheek briefly… I let out a yelp and a curse. The taste of blood entering my mouth… the adrenalin… it all pushes me to almost superhuman abilities. I grab his hand which is holding his knife and twist it in an essential 360 degrees. He shouts painfully and begins to shriek, "11-99! Officer needs assistance! Help me!". I look at him with pure anger and punch his mask once again, quickly grasping the knife on the floor. At the time, the rest of the group stares at me as I still engage in this fight. I am now the victor in this fight. The units last few seconds are of screaming, he knows it. I have the knife just above his chest with his hands desperately trying to resist. The death of Leo bursts before my eyes, the unit's screams take me back to that very moment of abandonment of my child and I pin the death on him… In a burst of rage I push the knife down into his chest. The first initial hits aren't enough to incise his kevlar but after 4 hits, blood begins to squirt out into my face like a sprinkler. I begin to shout as I psychotically move the knife up and down into his chest, "Die motherfucker! Die! Burn in hell you piece of shit!. He's already dead by the time I pierced his chest the 9th time. There's no resistance, no screaming, just a lifeless corpse under me.

I looks behind me, blood covering my face and chest. I see the body of Iris, pale and expressionless with Anthony angrily trying to revive her… A pool of blood beginning to paint the cracked road. I notice the savage of a person I just became and it's at this moment... I noticed this scavenger trip for some radio components has escalated to much more…

Chapter 7

"Attention: Ground units. Anti-Citizen located in this community. Lock. Stabilise. Cauterize." The iconic voice of the dispatcher sends shivers down my spines. I am still covered in blood and appear to be leading the group in some manner. Out of instinct, they all follow me and I have no direction of the area. All we hear are helicopters and scanners overhead. After running for a short few minutes, we finally arrive back to the base which is quite secluded and should serve us well while we hide. Besides, the units seem to be using scanners to search most apartments loosely, the perks of such a resistance in a large city. I get a thrill of excitement as we run… This is actually happening, I'm doing this… What's becoming of me? We all enter the apartment, me opening the door and holding it for the group to flee inside. I follow them all in and we rush up the stairs, I only follow Anthony from behind the line of us running. Finally to the top apartment, we reach the door and Killian quickly pounds onto it. A few seconds pass and the door opens slowly. My heart almost sinks again, thinking either cps will stride through or… Nadia's dead. A small black pistol is angled through the crack in the door and Killian quickly steps back in a gasp, expecting an instant death. A sigh of relief is heard from inside and Nadia opens the door, "I heard the commotion outside, some scanners came look-," She glances around the corridor, noticing Iris' absence, letting out a sigh and gesturing for us to get inside. The group just stays silent. Anthony seems less affected but only looks down, upset. Everyone else leans against the wall or sits on the sofas, including Nadia. She bites her lip, "So… I hope Iris'... Death wasn't in vain". Everyone basks in silence and she nods, "I see… I guess that only leaves us with plan b". It's around this time Anthony leaves the room. I have no bother to hear the plan and I chase after him as he leaves to the bedroom. I head after him and the rest of the group makes a small fuss as I run past them. I enter the room, finding Anthony leaning against the window and looking to the outside. I only glance at him, a metre away, "I didn't think you was so close to her..." he scowls, "You don't need to be close to someone to feel loss… She was a kid Dani. She was just… a stupid kid…" This strikes me but I continue to analyse his emotion. The fact that one number out of millions affects him so much, the fact that he didn't even want to kill… It's weird to me. No one wants to kill in this world, but he's different. "Why don't we just go hear out Nadia. There's no point in reflecting on the unfixable past". He pushes himself away from the wall, nodding slowly. As I am about to exit the room from in front of him, he quietly calls me, "Oh… And Dani." I look over my shoulder, seeing a small smile on his face, desperately trying to hide his sorrow, "That whole offer about the beds is still up," This time I find small amusement, continuing.

"Now after some investigation, we can confirm that there is an outpost in a tunnel-system not far from here, La Défense. Some of you may already know it; it's a small citizen system where they take refugees for shipment. It's almost certain that technologies we need will be there. It's how we gain it which is the issu-," Reginald interrupts quickly, "This is suicide! Have you seen those things? They have elites in there!". Nadia mutters, defeated. It's an obvious defect that those elites will make corpses of us. I bite my lip, recalling the outlands and speaking up, "I know what we can do…". In an instant, the room's direction moves to me and I let out a sweat, "The guns they carry… Those… Assault rifles. They carry an alternate fire. If we can get our hands on one, we can make quick movement on these 'elites'." Killian then interrupts, Everett keeping quiet all the while, "And how do you presume we… Get ahold of these 'alternate fires'?". I think over this for a while. The idea of assaulting one of the units and stealing its gun would be good, but I'm only getting cocky over the victory of a puny, dispensable collaborator. We're talking about brain-washed soldiers here; who knows how quick it'd end me. Anthony then speaks, giving his ideas for once, "A convoy." I glance at him, taking this as a joke while he is all the while serious, "We've seen how those things react… If we time it right, we can steal those pulse rifles from the top of those cars. All we need is a distraction and some explosives and it'd work… Right?". Nadia speaks quietly in her strong French accent, "That's not exactly how explosives work. You don't just grab your loot and run in these things. People die Anthony… But… If we are co-ordinated, this is our best shot". The conversation continues from there and I only mumble and nod, hardly listening to anything.

We all agree that the best course of action is to arm a trap against the Civil Protection. Nadia, using remnants of our small arsenal, begins to engineer a poor pipe-bomb of sorts. Most others of us prepare and organise a plan for the attack. Thanks to Jack, my aiming is OK and almost prevails everyone else's. It's agreed that I pull the initial attack and take out any assistance to the cps. It never hits me that this is essentially suicide, my mind only trains on Leo's death. I will do anything it takes to harm these aliens. I know it, I feel it… we'll be at victory soon. Throughout the discussion, I am introduced to an 'MP7' and learn how to use it briefly, after the searches for us quieten down. After cleaning my clothes and preparing, we are all ready for the attack. I only pray that no harm comes to me or my allies.

Night-time is upon us. We decided to wait until the next day and we did. It is now Sunday. I merely look around. We're in a sort of small box. In front, where I keep my view, is an entrance to a large road, behind me is another alleyway, only heading to some museum. I look up, seeing Killian, Everett and Reginald with their weapons draw. To my right, as we huddle behind this large garbage bin, is Anthony, bearing only a pistol; Nadia on my left with a similar weapon, only a revolver-like look to it. I nod to Everett and, in an instant, he chucks a grenade down in front of our cover. After a few seconds, a large explosion is heard and smoke begins to flood the area, some getting in my throat. Screaming from outside begins to emerge and a scanner floods into our area. This is what we planned... I merely look at it in anger, flipping it off with my middle-finger. Kilian, after allowing it to scan us, shoots the scanner down with one shot of his rifle and that's when a shitstorm begins. "You are charged with: Anti-civil activity, level one. Protection Units prosecution code: Duty. Sword. Operate! An APC rushes into the area and another grenade is thrown as the smoke clears, making a much louder noise, to the point where I cover my eyes. I hear two units screaming, stopping as they were attempting to exit the car. At this point, the three men above us begins laying down fire at the existing cps and more units would run into the alleyway. I almost feel like retreating as the car begins to fire at us. If we mess up… it's all over for us. I look to Nadia, "Do it!". She nods and pulls an old phone from her pocket, pressing some buttons and 'phoning' someone. I flinch, closing my eyes and awaiting an explosion. This will be quite the special… This car exploding in an instant… Any second now… Nothing happens… I look to Nadia as she calls the contact again… But nothing happens. "Shit shit shit! Come on! Work!". Anthony only stares at us, his eyes widening, "Well do you have a backup plan macgyver?". Nadia only lets out a shout, cursing and throwing the phone away. "Fuck it! This is my plan B!" she'd then pounce up from her cover and lay fire onto the cps with her revolver. After two shots, the scream of a unit is heard and the car begins to fire again. The men on the roof note the bomb's failure and begin assisting us with full-on fire. I only sit there, looking down the barrel of my own gun as Anthony and Nadia fire constantly at the units when the gun pauses to cool down. As before, things go slow for me... I only conserve my thoughts and freeze. I glance over the bin, noticing a gap between the plating in the car… It hits me… and I quickly clench onto my gun, "Throw a smoke!". Like a leader, my orders are obeyed and our final grenade rolls onto the floor in front of the car. If I mess this up… Everyone's dead.

I scream to the two beside me, "Cover me!" and quickly volt over our cover. As I rush towards a car, a unit climbs out from the smoke and quickly aims his weapon at me. "Dani!" is all I hear from behind me. I'm too preoccupied at rushing towards the car to react to the unit and one shot is heard. The unit falls to the floor soundlessly as 'overwatch' confirms his death. Anthony appears to have my back securely. By this time, I'm inside the cloud of smoke, on my own. What the hell am I doing? I question myself, allowing my body to control my movements. I pounce onto the car, firing almost all of my smg ammo into the gap. Varieties of male and female screaming surfaces from the car and the smoke begins to scatter. I almost freeze and fall off the car. In front of me, I see the glass dome on top of the car with a unit inside. In an instant, he turns his gun to me and begins charging his next array of shots. Out of instinct, I rapidly kick the dome in desperation and after several painful kicks, it pops open from the force. The unit shouts, "Shit! 11-9-," I interrupt him as I fill his body with the rest of my weapon's ammo, looking away and closing my eyes as to avoid seeing the violence. The car, now, is essentially ours. I glance behind me, seeing Anthony with one of the unit's smgs, adducing suppressive fire onto them. I yell to him, "Get the others down! I have an idea!" he nods and I climb into the car from the top. In the hull of the car are many corpses, one unit still injured and wailing on the floor, only departing as static through her vocoder. I crawl through to the middle of the car, apparently still full with smoke and ash from a variety of things. A unit appears to be begging for help from his radio and notices me, "Shit!" is all I hear and he quickly grabs a fusible stick from his belt. Gunfire still muffles from the outside and I raise my smg to the unit. I begin to fire but… nothing happens… only a clicking. He lets out a laugh, victorious in an essential way. The unit rushes towards me and I yelp, turning my gun and using the extended clip on the smg to hit him across the face as if a hammer. He lets out a shriek in pain and falls against the car's walls with an obvious dent in his mask. A static cough comes from his and he jumps towards me, hitting me with the stick. A gigantic sensation of electricity enters my arm and spreads across my body like a rapid disease. I screech again, in pain, and fall backwards as I groan, holding onto my arm and dropping my gun. He approaches me once more, upping the electricity on his electrical stick… I gulp and look around, thinking of what to do next. My only thought is to scream from help but this isn't some movie. No deus ex machina's going to save me here… The unit moves in for another attack and all I am able to do is weakly grab into the stick's hoster with him. Like my other encounter with a unit, the best I can hope for is some sort of superhuman strength. I take advantage of his damaged head and make a high kick for his mask, trying to damage him more. His victorious manner almost drains as my kick floors him. I begin to cough rapidly and the gunfire outside dies down. The unit, almost unconscious, groans on the floor and I quickly head for the driver's seat at the front of the car. I understand none of how to operate the car and only move it forward, opening the back doors once again.

I almost hit Nadia as the car slowly comes to a halt. Jumping out the back, I wave for everyone, who are now all on the ground, to get in and so they do. Anthony and I sit in the back, throwing out corpses and the unconscious and Nadia drives us out of the area. All units are disposed of from the car, apart from one. The job was quite heavy and we take no notice of where Nadia is driving us. I instantly know who the unit is as I see his concave mask, now completely unconscious. I look down at him in anger, Anthony doesn't know he's alive… I kick the unit out the car and his body becomes, most certainly, lifeless as it violently collides with the remains of an old truck in the road. I let out a pattern of heaves, trying to hide my thoughts. "Protection team alert: Evidence of anti-civil activity in this community. Code: Assemble. Clamp. Contain. Individuals. You are now charged with socio-endangerment, level 5. Cease evasion immediately. Receive your verdict". I see Killian by the driver's seat, blood coming from his hand as he holds his lower body. I only double glance at it, he seems to be holding through. I move closer to Nadia, brushing off Anthony's small resistance. "I hope you're thinking what I am," she doesn't even look at me, "We're obviously not heading back… Just be ready for loss Dani. It's inevitable." I look down grimmly, moving back with a sigh. I hear helicopters flying overhead like earlier and hold my gun shakily. I look around the car. Killian is still Injured, Anthony is watching the back, Everett finally notices Killian, tending to him, and Reginald is directing Nadia. Knowing this, I decide to hop into the gunner seat, grabbing the plasma gun to the left of me with fear, hoping I'm not in danger. The window-like top seems to have been re-shut so I'm much more protected against bullets… hopefully.

We near up the tunnel and transmissions come from under me, supposedly from those inside the tunnel. "This is 'Quick' 072934. Identify yourself". We avoid answering, only driving through. We near closer to the tunnel and we begin to descend down. "I repeat, Identify yourselves". With the aggressive sound of the car speeding up, Nadia plows the car through the make-shift gate into the tunnel. Behind it was two units, one being hit while the other jumps out the way. I instantly open fire inside the tunnel, hoping to hit something. Nothing is heard and I miss anyone who was fortunate enough to be in front. The tunnel begins to grow lighter and in front of us are two sturdy walls. We edge closer and closer, plowing through anyone in our way. Nadia finally screeches the car to a halt… Silence. "Why did you stop?!" is all I hear from Anthony, under me. Before she can answer, I figure out when an uncountable amount of grey and blue coloured soldiers appear to be running towards us from the tunnel, supposedly from the outpost. Out of impulse, I open fire onto them, spraying bullets everywhere in sight and only hitting a few, hitting more and more as they grow bigger and bigger due to their closeness. "Oh, thanks Nadia! Thanks for looking out for us! Mind ploughing them instead of sitting there!? And not the kind of plough you enjoy with Killian!" she only mumbles, "We'll be surrounded if we head in with a live trail! hold tight!". I pick off a few soldiers before my plans are made fruitless. I look behind me when the blaring sound explosion and destruction of concrete is heard. Once the dust and debris has cleared, we see a helicopter above which supposedly fired a rocket into the tunnel entrance, now aiming at us! "Fuck it! Plan B it is!". The car begins moving again and one of the soldiers rolls over the top of the car almost comedically as Nadia aims to hit as many as possible, driving near the end of the tunnel. The car crashes into the side of a Combine Force Field (a blue, checkered wall, mostly see-through and stops unregistered material from entering). The field deactivates as we are able to just destroy the side. Many more of the white-coloured 'elites' move in, moving away from their posts in the base. "Go ahead Dani! I doubt they're waiting on you!" Everett snivels. I sit there shakily for a second… taking my aim and firing, the noises damaging my ears slightly. One by one the elites fall but not enough for some to stay standing by the time the gun requires to recharge. "Fuck! Nadia!" I look at the 6 soldiers and duck, they begin to fire at me and the car. "Dani! Hurry up and kill them!". I don't respond and a high-pitched alert plays, similar to that of an elevator's. I jump up slightly, happy in a way, shooting at them again. Almost running out of charge , the soldiers are all wiped out, each individually playing their cliché alert upon death.

A few seconds pass of silence. Reginald begins to talk quietly to us, "Alright… I guess we better get out". we all step out of the car from the back, the group reforming in its usual circle. We all stare at the car, smoke coming from the front as it sadly lies against the side of the wall. We all head through the gate which is now become useless due to its collision with the car. Anthony and I, like usual, stay at the back of the group. I become more concerned for Killian as he coughs quite a lot as we walk through the tunnel; Reginald only merely placed a bandage around the wound until further analysis can be made, he'll be fine, I'm sure of it. The tunnel begins to grow lighter as we head down, quite quickly too. We're met with gunfire and vocoded shouting when finally sighted. Nadia quickly grabs her revolver from her makeshift belt, killing two units and firing 6 shots. "We got units incoming!" I do nothing, only stand next to anthony. The units are quickly cleared by Nadia and Reginald. We all vow to keep our weapons out, even Killian, the injured one here. I hate holding my gun but I hate being shot more… pickers can't be choosers I suppose. Nearing closer to the area of where the units spawned shows a wall of small barricades, the usual blue, metal outside with a weird liquid core which prevents bullets from entering. We all volt over the barricades, past an open metal door and inside the base. The room is completely silent, probably evacuated in room of the elites to take over. Nadia spits more orders at us, "Take whatever you can, make sure its not tracked, I'll take care of the radio". I say nothing, moving around and intentionally finding nothing. I'm too tired to bother. Everyone's so involved, even Anthony, taking no time to harass me or cut some stupid joke. I shortly look around. The place is littered with walls and weird terminals, sticking to the walls and carrying blue, flashy lights on the sides of them. I notice the same logo I did on the car and the units, a wrench-like object. What could it mean? I haven't exactly got ahold of City life, it's weird how the world turned so horribly. After 5 minutes, everyone's carrying a bag of at least something… except me of course. We all head to the car and drive out before assistance comes, hoping to avoid any attention and to blend in.

I'm more than thankful. Our return proved effortless. We ditched the car near the river and are hiding back in the apartments. I only sit here, on my bed, holding my legs. I'm so tired now that the adrenaline has drained from my body. All I feel now is regret and fear, but most of all fatigue. "Hey Dani! Come in here a sec!" I run towards Nadia's voice. Inside the front room, I see the group crowded around the circular table, I push into the circle and see the radio on the table, hooked up with various wires. "I'm able to get any local frequencies that are active. Hopefully after an hour we'll find something…". I fold my arms, quickly interrupting, "Try someplace in Rouen, best place is probably a university or police station somewhere." Nadia looks at me skeptically, nodding and reaching down to a small computer on the table, typing something and clicking her computer mouse now and again. "Mmm. There's an old police radio still active in the vicinity, military per-," I interrupt her quickly, "Do it". It takes a while. Static continues to pester my, and probably everyone else's, ears but after a while, someone speaks. "Hello? Who's tracking us? Ah shit!" I recognize the deep voice of the young student, Michael, I interrupt before Nadia can speak or Michael can turn off communications. "Wait! Michael it's me!". A small static sigh comes through, "I'll get Jack." It takes a few minutes. After a while of pondering over the radio, it begins to make noise again, "Dani?! You're there?". Killian speaks before I do in my direction, "You know these guys?". I only raise my hand to silence him, "Yes… I-It's me". I can sense his smile over the comms, his forgiveness instantly falling upon me, almost forgetting what I even did. "Where the heck are you? We gotta come pick you up. Lewis just finished up on this car we found we gotta pick you and your friends up now." I speak slowly, hoping not to hurt him, "We're uh… In the City… In Paris," "What do you mean?" he asks,"With that huge tower?". I mumble softly at him, hearing another static sigh from the radio. Everyone around me is surprisingly silent. "I see… I guess we'll be moving in too." I look around me, taking in the decay of the apartment around me, "You can't… It's too dangerous. Just be safe out ther-," He quickly interrupts me, becoming louder, "Dani. I've spent hours searching for you. I'm not giving up now because there's some walls in the way. Now. Where abouts in Paris are you?"

Chapter 8

"How long are they gonna take… I'm freezing out here". I look over to Anthony as he talks, almost embarrassed in some sort of peer-pressured way; Nadia notices, "Half of the battle is patience boy. Danielle's friends will come around when they do. It's not a cookie jar they're breaking into here," he only blows in reply, holding his arms. I can't disagree; even with our kevlar's low conductivity, it's undoubtedly cold. I can even notice some frost across the grass, welcome to February. The area is remarkably open. In Front of me is a small, crumbled fountain, 9-10 metres away. Close to it is a large building, mainly intact; it looks to be a technology company HQ but the need for online card games is long gone, I'm not exactly saying I'll miss it though. Behind us is just the usual lineup of architecture hell. I still hear crumbling and debris falling now and again. My sight is quickly brought over to the direction Nadia is looking, "Hey! Over there!". I see some of the old group I used to be in, mainly Michael and Jack in front. I see Michael with a bandage around his leg, I almost find this humorous, letting out a snicker which goes unheard. Jack lets out a small wave with his gun in the air, showing peace while running over to us with his allies. "Dani! Finally..." Jack speaks loudly, quieting down and catching his breath as he finally runs to speaking distance to me, "Took us forever to find you… Paris hasn't changed too much at least". I let off a chuckle at the joke, still seeing my son's murderer in his eyes. As usual… It's not his fault but creating the feeling that he is the killer, that I could 'avenge' Leo at any time is more comforting than cursing water and orange portals for the majority of my life. He shows a sort of gesture to hug me but I pretend to not notice it, I'm in no mood for hugging. "I suppose we should show you where we're hiding out before someone notices us out here." Jack nods in agreement to me and allows Nadia and I to lead the way back from where we came from.

Heading inside our usual residence in the apartment and ensuring we are allies to Reginald, we all step inside the large front room. It now costs of Anthony, Nadia, Killian, Reginald, Everett, Jack, Michael, two other indistinguishable males and I. The room is almost packed but it's enough for now. I notice something weird on the right upper-sleeves of Jack and his two accomplices. A weird lambda sign, an upside down 'Y' in a way. I decide not to question Jack on it and nod to Everett, allowing him to introduce the newcomers. "Well we'll be moving soon but this is where we'll mostly be, beds are in the room to the right of me". I step into the bedroom as Everett talks, Nadia quickly following as she notices the door close. "Your brother huh? What split you up? What happened?" she speaks to me as I have my back to her, I slightly glance at her, stopping and turning my head to the side, "Combine attack? Lost at sea? Or perhaps…," I see the way she analyses me with a smirk on her face, a cigarette holder between her fingers; I quickly speak over her, "Does it really matter to-," "Perhaps it was a disagreement?". I turn almost in a rage. Her well-dressed body, her styled hair, her cigarette holder, her mild pose, they all scream conservative to me… they all scream selfishness, unbeatable intelligence and greed. She lets out a small laugh, pulling a cigarette from one of her nifty pockets and lights it, accompanying it inside her holder before she begins to smoke, "I saw the way you look at him… Hah. I'll be surprised if you two last a week before you kill each other". I only clench my fists… she's intentionally annoying me… isn't she? "You know, girl, I'm with you on this one. Just give me the word, we can do away with him at any time," her slick french voice almost makes me want to hit her and the idea of trying to kill Jack almost supports that, "What the fuck is your problem?!". She only laughs "I'm not going to be Jerry Springer for you two, I'm merely stating quick solutions to-," "Killing family is not a solution you fucking inbred!". She lets out a small sigh, perhaps the nicotine is finally straightening her, "Alright… Calm down… I was just joking". This excuse doesn't persuade me but she continues anyway, "I can already catch on what he's forced you to do. It's obvious he's the dominant one here… Just trying to be of comfort, I only grunt, calming slightly, "Well trying to convince me to kill my own brother isn't exactly too comforting… Just leave me alone". She notices my despair, grabbing another cigarette and lighter from her pocket, "Want one?" I glance down at her offering. I've never smoked before but I'm almost interested to, slowly grabbing it. I see the smirk on her face, creating tension as she intentionally makes a slow movement of lighting it for me. I place the cigarette in my mouth and inhale quite heavily. My face turns green as I hold the smoke in my mouth for a few seconds, instantly coughing and choking to her laughter. After a few seconds of laughing, she continues, "Well. I best go talk to the others. Enjoy, girl." I glance down the cigarette for a few seconds, grumbling and throwing it away before stomping on it with my foot, then following Nadia into the front room.

I enter slowly, no one bringing their attention to me. I see Everett talking, standing right in front of the table while everyone circles around, "So we're thinking of heading East and West for the supplies. Since north of us is the Citadel and behind is the river, there's no point in risking losing anyone else. Now there's another thing." Nadia interrupts quickly, "You're not suggesting we go through with it really? It was only a shot in the dark". Everett glances at her, nodding and continuing, "We need two people to get inside the main City. Nadia found the frequency of another rebel group closer to the Eiffel Tower. They're prepared to trade ammunition and food for Kevlar," he looks to me gradually, "Of course there are likely candidates for this… Those who still have their IDs and can get in much easier". I nod with a slight smile, "I'll do it". Surely talking to some people in an alley is much safer than scavenging, I can say with confidence that I've had my peak amount of scavenging for one lifetime. Jack looks at me, moving towards me, "She isn't doing any of that without me. That's final." Everette only nods with a smile, "Nadia, you have two citizen uniforms don't you?" she replies with delight, "Oh yes I do, I also have two suitcases with two cute red and blue bow-ties for them." I notice Jack's annoyance to their jokes, which is something I can agree on. "There's no point in heading out so soon," Everett cuts in "We'll get to work tomorrow". Most people lounge around, some of our group converge with Jack's friends, others sit and drink the remains of our coffee while Anthony, Jack and I take the opportunity to gain the energy we'll need for tomorrow. I try not to lurk on today's events, only fall into the darkness of sleep.

I open my eyes, quickly jump up from my bed and pant quite quickly in fear. I'm sweating substantially, letting out a small sigh of relief after releasing the nightmare is truly fiction. In the corner of the room is a clock so I narrow my eyes to check the time: 6:26 A.M. Letting out a sigh of relief, I notice I do have bed sheets and an actual bed, as well as underwear; proving I'm not locked away, like in my nightmares. I stand up from my bed while wiping sweat from my forehead. Taking initiative, I casually walk to the small armoury next to the bedroom. While on my short journey, I notice Anthony is awake in his bed, two filled beds from mine. He only stares at me, possibly still asleep. Considering his 'joke' flirtings towards me, he doesn't seem to be admiring me in anyway, only staring at me with tire in his eyes. I only shrug, continuing to walk inside the room. Inside is still lit with a colourless moth flitting around the lightbulb, making me envy it's ignorance to our new lives. From one of the lockers, I grab two blue citizen uniforms, reminding me of when I first got to this city. I also grab two brown, leather suitcases from under the clothing, quietly shutting the locker with my foot and exiting the room. I quite jokingly throw one pair of trousers and shirt onto Jack's legs as he sleeps, dropping one of the suitcases beside him and relieving the balance I had to create to hold half of the elements of our objectives today. The door to our bedroom is slightly open, with murmurs coming from the main room, along with a dim light. I use my foot, again, to open the door, stepping inside. I see Michael and Everett on a brown couch with a two beers between them as they talk. Michael only glances at me, I see the hate in his eyes; I don't blame him considering what I did to him. I only nod, taking note of their disregard to a half-exposed person interrupting them and leaving to the bathroom, still next to Nadia's workbench. Inside the bathroom, I glance outside the slightly-covered window, seeing the dark blue colour of the sky roam across the barren city of Paris. This used to be a beautiful place, now it is purely depressing. I interrupt my continual staring at things, shaking my head and placing on the citizen clothes. They're almost as tight as the kevlar, even though they're in my size range.

Now dressed, I simply stand here, staring at my reflection in the mirror. I used to view myself as beautiful, independant… all I am now is a tired mess; dim circles under my eyes, few scars across my face, scattered, short brown hair. Brush away hair from my eye, I stretch in my clothes and head out into the main room, now seeing 3 people but still being able to identify only Michael and Everett, the other person is one of Jack's pals. Next to Nadia's bench are two fridges. I open the fridge on the right, surprised to see it's still powered (most likely from a generator). Inside is just certain tins and etcetera, I grab a peculiar-shaped, yellow tin and investigate it. I mumble under my breath, "Mmm… Peaches… This'll do". Luckily, the tin has a sort of pull up so I don't have to mindlessly hunt for a tin-opener. Locating an empty, brown sofa, I quickly take a seat down. I'm quite hungry but not enough to eat like a savage. I casually sit, looking around as I fish out a slice of peach with fingers, eating them while my stomach disagrees. It's not that I dislike or am allergic to peaches but due to how long they've been contained, they're horrid. The dark surroundings disturb me like a toothache. The memories of my old life and Leo... they all sting. I begin to assume that's the feeling of everyone here… losing loved ones and having to fight. We're all just kids fighting like soldiers. In this light… maybe we're not so different to these 'combine soldiers'. We brainwash ourselves, shoot and kill others and use masks to show no emotion so we can survive.

With no sort of entertainment, I just sit silently. No conversation arises, no 'hey remember when you shot me in the leg' remarks from Michael.. Just silence. I primarily sit here in wait for Nadia and Jake to awake. After 30 minutes, I grow bored of gratuitously waiting for people to wake up and decide to grab my old blue book from my bag. I open it up, mostly empty considering I hardly wrote anything inside. I read through my latest passage, the one I wrote on my car journey here. It's almost humorous how unaware I was, how time and luck was just enough for me to snap, for us to find that car, for anthony to find me, for my transport in the city to take longer than expected. When they all add, it seems like our lives are just simulation, like a game, or movie and everything is all hard-coded and non-coincidental. I ponder over the theory for a while, shrugging it off and reading.

' _I'm going to the slave camps. Jack disagreed but I gave up. He tried to stop me but… I pulled a gun on him. I didn't want to, nor did he attempt to stop me, he knew I would've shot. I'm close to the walls now writing what may be my last passage… I will attempt to take the book in with me but… I digress. I have no final speech if I do die. I just hope humanity will win this war.'_

Things seem to move quickly now. Again, I try to be ignorant of this and just shrug it off. I have nothing to add, nor will I add anymore, so I only skim through some more pages of my recent past, growing sort of nostalgic of the old me and who I was.

To my surprise, Jack and Nadia weirdly exit the bedroom collectively at, what I can guess, 7:30 am. Due to the size of the room, all I can hear is them mumbling, Nadia laughing at one point. Nadia showing some sort of genuine happiness, instead of sarcasm, is new in itself but I shouldn't judge her character after two days. I only look up, pretending to still read my book; Jack appears too also have the required 'citizen' clothes on for today, most likely since I dumped them on him. They both approach me, still talking. "Oh… Sorry to keep you waiting Dani. Atleast you got your clothes on too. Your brother is… a humorous man I must say," I kvetch to myself with mumbles, still slightly angered by Nadia yesterday. I say nothing and nod for her to continue, "Oh… Yes". With a gesture from her, I stand from the couch and place my blue book in my pocket, small enough to fit. I, with Jack, follow Nadia over to the table in the middle of the room, plastered with maps, coffee stains and things of the like. Her loud and happy voice evaporates back into her slick, French tone. She uses her two fingers to point to a map, that being a colourful tourist map with many markings and routes. "We've been doing some researching and we've discovered that your journey is going to be more of a hike than we presumed." she points to the near bottom of the map to a small yellow square, "This is where we are now. With communication with the other group, we've found that they are.." she then moves her fingers slowly across a curved yellow line to a purple-coloured box which is higher-up and to the west, "Here. This'll be where you're headed. Of course you'll be taking the map but most of it is just a straight road". Jack only stands silently with his arms crossed; I follow a similar composition to him. "As long as you keep to back allies and let Danielle do the talking, you should lose major attention of any civil protection"," Nadia glances at me a second with a raised brow before continuing, "It's best you head out before we do. If we gather any attention, you'll be a long way back here, avoiding any conflict in the inner-city". Before I can reply, as usual, Jack takes control, "No doubt about it. Eh… Don't worry, we won't let you down". And with a smile, she only murmurs to Jack. I grab my suitcase by the sofa, gesturing for Jack to grab his by my bed. Once we're all complete in what we need, we leave with goodbye to Nadia.

With Jack behind me, we leave the apartment block and walk down the opposite way of the road that I usually travel down. The walk doesn't seem as long really, Jack and I just keep to alleyways with our heads down. Though at our first turn, I noticed a sign with labels were our hideout is: 'Rue Varet'. If my poor geography is correct, that's quite close to the eiffel tower, The major combine nexus in this city. My only theory is that they've been colonising up north, instead of south. I only begin to hypothesise out of boredom; Jack obviously knows little of this side of Paris and I'm the one with a small image of the map in my head - just a straight road, by Port Morland. This route will probably take us 2 to 3 hours if we're lucky and don't get caught up. After, what I can assume, 10 minutes, Jack grows bored, trying to spawn a conversation, "Remember when we was gonna fly past here… Head to Lyon to mum's old place?" I only murmur in response, "Mmm.. Why wouldn't I?" "Come on… It's silent out here; you can talk to me." I glance back at him as I walk, seeing a sort of inviting smile which begins to speak again, "No harm in reminiscing," I continue to stare at his inviting face before laughing slightly and replying, "I mean… What was up with her basement? Had a whole soap convention down there." Jack lets out an annoyingly loud, but comforting smile, "W-What was it she had, Bacon soap?", he laughs a little more with my joining in, "She had like a whole box and everything." After laughing, we both sigh at an almost similar time, psychologically brushing off those happy memories. After some seconds, he continues after a sigh, "I do miss ma'... Crazy bitch." I slowly nod in return, "Would've been 46 today." Jack quickly adds on, kind of draining the conversation, "She'd of kicked alien ass," I chuckle as he speaks, "Would've smothered em' with 'fresh grass' soap." We're quickly interrupted by the, quite reticent, sound of a combine APC and quickly duck into the nearby alley which is made by a gap between a large shopping centre (to our left) and some abandoned parking lot (to our right). Jack holds and squeezes my hand in some sort of defense of me as the car begins to stop… My heart is almost audible, knowing they saw us. We prepare to run and two units step out the car casually as if they're just visiting for some milk. The units calmness seems to let us know they're just scouts, probably investigating the store. One of them speaks in a low pitch, vocoded voice, speaking with his friend most likely, "Hear about Adams?", "I think so, didn't he get his ass kicked by some citizen?", One of the unit laughs along with the other and they continue to talk becomes inaudible to me as they enter the store. Jack quickly taps me and we begin to run down the alleyway and flee from the two cops.

We're, by now, deeper into the city. It's quite peculiar how this area is forming. Some citizens and people are dotted around the area in these 'slums' but it's mostly just silent. We notice some patrols walking around, two or three people with these 'stunsticks' out, but all they do is tell us to move along, acting like they're bullies who own the playground. From what I can tell, Paris has it's 'inner city' by the eiffel tower with many blocks spanning out, the slums which is further out and the outer slums which are, technically, in the city but are essentially the outlands, silent and deserted. The only things 'stopping' us were some high walls that we were able to walk around through buildings and alleys. I walk with Jack next to me but this seems to give us negative attention with many people eyeing us weirdly, all alone, which gives off as if we're doing something wrong. We've been walking for a good hour and a half now. I see Jack quite fatigued but I probably am too, I tend not to bother for my own needs. The street we're now walking in is quite dense and quiet. Two people seem to be comforting each other on the opposite side of the road of us. There's something eye catching about this and I slow down to see it. The two people seem to be male and female and don't notice me rudely staring at them but I am quickly made to walk faster once a civil protection unit shouts at the top of his lungs in the usual vocoded voice, "Citizens!" Quickly, the two break away from each other and the unit laughs as he switches on his 'stunstick' "We got a… Level 3 citizen incursion," I turn my head away, looking down and walking fast in front of Jack as the female begs for mercy, shortly screaming after. Jack and I turn the corner quickly, letting out a breath. "Jesus Christ. And I thought you shooting Michael was a dick move," I look at him with a dry face. Before I or Jack can reply, the male of the two 'violating' citizens runs around the corner, quite close to us, obviously abandoning his female accomplice. Jack, almost instantly, pulls me back into one of the doorless buildings, a cake store from what I can tell. As we hide inside the building, multiple pistol shots discharge from the left of us and the suspected screaming of the male is too. I peer around the corner of the doorway, seeing many people doing a similar thing while spectating, trying to go unnoticed. The triggerman unit at hand looks around at his congregation, feeling like a gladiator for mowing down an unarmed man. He only laughs and holds his gun down, looking me straight in the eye as he scans the area. Obviously at high rank, he shouts to his assailants, "Leave it's corpse here… That's a message for anyone who thinks they can 'take on' the Union," and with a short gesture and a laugh, the unit and his confederates clear off from the area, only leaving a bleeding man to die in the road.

Jack seems to have seen enough and, without my say in it, sits down by the boarded window of the store. I just stay to my position, glancing around the street. A minute passes and still no one has the guts to see if the male is OK but… he's dead now… I'm sure of it. I seem to have a habit of analysing people. All I see are detailed faces, stories, people… All cowering and scared as they litter windows, bushes and the behinds of cars. I hear Jack standing with a sort of pleasurable groan while he stretches, "Damn.. You think these combine fellas' got a gym round here? Ahah…" I let off a fake, soft chuckle and look back at him, noticing he is ready to continue walking. I'm more surprised the units didn't search out suitcases, guess they're too lazy to actually do something that'd help them. We proceed to walk down the street, making a left turn at one point, very close to our destination. We're now passing a grand library, taking up the whole street. Pasted over the library's entrance sign is a grey banner with the 'Universal Union' logo and a clear note which tells us that it has been terraformed into an apartment block. I feel quite hypocritical of my whole 'I care not for my needs' statement and whisper to Jack that I need to go inside for a toilet. He merely nods and leans against the fence outside with his arms crossed as he scans the area in a similar manner to the unit earlier. I try to cloak myself and only open the door quietly, smoothing inside like a snake. The main entrance room consists of a tv, with two, green sofas positions around it. A male with a white shirt sits on one of the couches to the left of the tv, watching it. The rest of the room is faded to me, I only approach him in curiosity. Around his arm is a red bang with the usual combine logo on it, the same logo being on the breast-pocket of his shirt too. He seems almost hypnotized by the propaganda playing on the screen, some brown haired, well-dressed female speaking in an ugly beige suit. In his right hand is a red can of 'breen's water'.

I only shrug off the male, now taking in the rest of the room: empty and filled with posters. To the right of me, against the wall, is an old library shelf with nothing on it. Most of the culture of this place would've been torched by now, guaranteed. As I move closer to the stairs, where the bathroom would be, I see a tall male in similar clothes to me, run down the stairs. He seems mostly muscular with a short beard. Quickly following behind him is a unit with a '03' armband around him. He quickly kicks the citizen as he runs down the stairs, almost making him fall on top of me. By now, I've stepped back, close to the door if I must flee. The man has quickly climbed back onto his feet, somehow making himself smaller than the unit in the way he cowers, "I-I'm sorry man! I swear I wasn't… I wasn't gonna! I was just speaking nonsense you know..?" The man is quickly disregarded and the unit laughs as usual, striking him across the face with his clenched hand. "I-I'm sorry! Please!" Again, the unit laughs and withdraws his stunstick. I take no opportunity to stay, fleeing upstairs as it was my original idea. I hear distance yelling and screaming from the man below, I assume the male watching the mindless propaganda shows no emotion currently… he seems like the evasive type. The upstairs to this library is obviously altered; a long corridor spans from both ends of the long building with mist and dust making it almost impossible to see the boarded windows at the end. The building is certainly old or… victim to poor construction from how these rooms are positioned and how there is no fire exit; I'm no expert but one fire on the stairs could mark the end of any occupant up here. Of course our new 'friends' have managed to make a fire literally impossible of spreading with the usual vile metal plating most, if not all, of the rooms. There seems to be no public toilets up here so I guess I'll have to borrow someone's. I selectively pick the most downtrodden door; the more abused something is, the more empathetic it could be… or so I can assume. I knock on the door thrice and wait… 10 seconds pass before someone finally opens the door. I find a perplexed, but anxious, middle-aged female with messy, short hair which I can't really tell the colour of (though it's quite dark). She must've thought I was one of those units, the 10 seconds of waiting were probably her crafting courage out of shifted parts of naivety and innocence. She only stares at me with bright emerald eyes, almost looking yellow and… restless. After a few seconds of investigating me, she speaks with a sort of french accent, as expected in these areas, "I… speak no English?", I merely nod and call upon my poor knowledge of French, "Uh… Puis-je utiliser... la toilette?". She blankly stares at me again before quietly mumbling to me, "Oui…". She quickly moves away from the door, almost protecting herself from it as I enter.

What was once a sort of dusty old room is now more lit and visible. The place is still a trash-heap, improvised and obviously not bothered by the Combine. What catches my eyes the most is the sheer amount of people in this small room. The room is probably the size of a usual apartment, with cookers on the right of the room and the usual drawers and beds on the left. the room consists of 7 other beneficiaries, all as concealed as the female, trying to hide themselves behind drawers sub-consciously and sit on the beds. Though I'm no unit, they still seem to be all enemy to each other, hoping that 'other guy' gets targetted, not them. I don't make it visible that I am analysing, however, I only do what nice guests would and walk to the bathroom on the far end of the room, opposite of a second room, most likely a bedroom of sorts. Of course we're against the clock with this task so I better not spend my time staring a doors. I quickly enter the bathroom and do what I need to. I would wash my hands but the taps, seemingly, have been cut off from the water supply, which is unfortunate. Doing nothing, I just wipe my hands on my trousers and quickly leave the bathroom without flushing the chain. The female who invited me in still stands by the door and quickly blinks to me, opening the door and rushing me out before I can get a look on the other residents; I assume visitors are something now banned in this new world, unfortunate… I walk myself down the corridor quickly, now that I've reminded myself of the low time we have. I reach the stairs, waiting for a few seconds… listening out… Silence… Eerie silence. I slowly tread down the stairs to find nothing but a scatter of blood across the wall. The sight sends chills down my spine and I quickly disregard them, walking to the door. As I open the door backwards, I eye the male, still on the sofa as he watches the propaganda. The cold, polluted air flows back into my lungs; at least it's much more cleansed than the dust inside. Jack only nods to me and I retake the lead, now the streets are quiet… we can move through without much disturbance. We continue hiking through the alley ways and it's been around 5 minutes since my interaction with the new world. I can't exactly explain where we are… but something seems oddly weird about this street. Like a lot of the areas of Paris, the street is quite narrow and feels oddly town-like but there's a macabre about the area.

We continue to walk, the skies beginning to grow dark with a sort of appealing blue tint. We have no weapons on us, only two suitcases of kevlar and assorted items which could be enough to ensue suspicion if anyone was with the intent of searching them. We're very close to our destination by now, I can almost smell the sludge of the iconic 'Basin de l'Arsenal' which I've only ever seen in picture, unfortunately. As usual, I scan the area for any signs or forms of life but am quickly drawn to a halt by Jack. Without even wondering why, I shakily look before me, seeing a unit, staggeringly taller than me at around 6 foot, beating me by 4 inches. All I see is him staring at me, I sense a sort of demise behind his mask, a smile of sinister intent. "Mmm. Planning on heading to the river with your lover? I quickly reply to him, obviously nervous but trying to seem innocent, "Uh… Actually he's my brother… S-Sir." He laughs quickly, drawing his stunstick as if he planned this before he even met us, "Well that's not supposed to happen is it… Maybe we'll have to contact the transmission officer, won't w-", Jack quickly interrupts him, "Shit Dani!", the second he shouts this, he has already turned in some sort of over-excessive fight-move. With his heavy suitcase in hand, he powerfully strikes the unit across his mask after a quick turn, flooring him instantly. The lack of beeping from his uniform tells us that he's probably stunned for the time-being and we both craft the idea of running before he sees where we go. In the distance, as we flee the area, we hear him beginning to shout, "11-99! Officer needs assistance!" We reach a large, open road which, from the map, I can already tell is named 'Boulevard Bourdon'. Straight in front of us is a rather redundant bridge, small enough for us to run across with many railings and curved architecture boarding it, unsurprisingly charred but surprisingly intact. We hear sirens ring in background of the city, "Individual: You are charged with socio endangerment, level 1. Protection units: Prosecution codes: Duty, Sword, Midnight." I understand little of the 'codes' but we proceed to run before being seen. A car is heard very close and we begin to panic, rushing.

The bridge abnormally begins to angle downwards and, if it wasn't for Jack grabbing both the railing and I, I would've fallen into the water bellow. It seems to bridge is missing a column and is now deciding it's best to collapse now. Somehow breaking some sort of physics, or perhaps relying on the rest of the columns, the bridge just about stays in play but the sheer sound is probably enough to draw the car to us. In Front of us, I see a sort of concrete pathway which connects to the, now burnt, wooden ports. I look to Jack who is concentrated on stopping my inevitable fall and I nod to him, pulling myself away and jumping off the bridge, onto the path below. Due to how far down it was, I hurt my ankle and the sheer pain brings some sort of ringing into both my legs and I shout in pain. Jack immediately grows a fear for me, I'm actually quite alright, I just have a sort of cramp in my ankle. He too jumps from the bridge as a sort of collapsing sound is heard from it, still staying in place as a stable structure though. Unlike me, Jack lands fine on both his legs and quickly runs to me; he asks if I'm OK but I quickly disregard the pain as we still hear civil protection in the distance. We proceed to get to our feet, running down the concrete path, taking no time to see the slightly-drained river to the right of us. In the distance, we see a green, boarded building which is quite hidden by its surroundings. I can assume, due to how close we was, that this is our destination and tap Jack's arm to follow me. I'm surprised the cps haven't noticed us yet but we should make the most of it. I begin to pick up speed, looking like some sort of awful super-hero with my blue-boiler clothes and brown, dirty suitcase.

We reach the brown complex and it smells repugnant. The windows are covered with construction wood hastily and quite poorly, I could probably rip them off now if I had the strength; My main attention is the 'entrance' of sorts. It's quite obviously a door, it's a large metal plate, the sort of material you'd get in a slum house, and shows gaps around the bottom with can only prove it can be lifted. I nod to Jack as the sirens grow to a halt, they probably stopped around the area by now. I quickly knock on the door thrice and talk loudly inside, "Uh… Pizza delivery!" The 'door' begins to lift with another, metallic door behind it. There's a small rectangular hatch on the top of the door, noticeably darker than the door itself. The hatch opens and all I catch a glimpse of is a pair of blue eyes, staring at me with a docile look. I lift my suitcase slowly, "We're - We're from Nadia..?" The male nods and quickly closes the hatch, opening the door. It swings open quickly and we are both greeted with a pair of well-armed mails aiming at us with assault rifles, bigger than the one Jack first had in the outlands. From the condition of their uniforms, these men are obviously military of sorts, probably hiding from the Combine to avoid being brainwashed into one of the elites. I only give off a slight wave to them, again nodding to Jack in a gesture for him to copy me as I drop my suitcase onto the floor, sliding it over. The soldier on the right quickly projects his voice, ordering the male who opened the door to us, "Check the suitcases, tell us if they're telling the truth." I'm not sure why, maybe it's the nervousness of having a gun aimed at me, but I'm almost not taking this seriously and let of a small smile, staying calm and collected. I remark to which no one laughs, "Well… Unless you're expecting a certain blue drug from a middle-aged high-school teacher, we should have what you're expecting." The male checking our suitcases only bares a dirty, ripped version of our clothing and quickly looks over to the two soldiers. I inspect the roof, looking past the soldiers. The building is two-storey with only one ceiling. The second story consists of a large, metal flooring with certain creates, technology and beds on it, added with two people in kevlar, staring at us with less-advanced weapons than the soldiers in front of us. Under the two kevlar-padded people are four other citizens, dressed all in the usual blue and obviously just refugees, hiding. "They're clean sir - Shall I get the payment?" The soldiers grow less uneasy and lower their guns, the same male on the right replies to his assistant who just finished going through our possessions, "Go ahead." Something catches my eye about to two males, a certain symbol on their right arms which is sprayed on in orange. All I can remember the symbol from is our old science classes in school, the greek lambda symbol (λ) and it's intriguing to me. The same male appears from my right with another two suitcases and hands them to Jack and I, much lighter than our previous cargo. "We heard cps chasing you - it's best you head out the front entrance." I merely nod and follow the soldier on the left as we quickly jog up the stairs to the door on the second floor, "Try not to be sighted, we're not helping once you step outside." With another cliché nod, Jack and I quickly exit as the metallic door is opened by hand, after being unlocked, and we rush outside, running into the darkness of the city.


End file.
